Digital Monsters: Back In Action
by Charles Xavier
Summary: When Takeru is accused of murdering the head of Toei Animation, Toon Detective Eddie Valiant (Who Framed Roger Rabbit) is sent to Japan to investigate. But what he uncovers is something he'll regret...
1. Eddie's New Case

**_Digital Monsters: Back In Action_**

**_By Charles Xavier_**

****

**Eddie's New Case**

_"Wait." A female voice moaned, standing in the unlit bedroom with another figure. "What if anyone finds us alone in here?"_

_"Why do you worry so much?" The boy walked up to embrace her and release the worries she had on her mind. "Didn't I tell you that I locked the door?"_

_"Where is the key?"_

_He dug his hand into his pants pockets to slip out a shiny gold object in his fingers._

_"You see what I did?" He murmured with a slight grin. "Nobody's going to bother us now. We've been through far too many adventures these past few years. Don't you think it's about time we started to settle down…together, Hikari?"_

_"Oh, Takeru."__ Hikari replied softly and stroked Takeru's soft cheeks. "I've always been hiding from you ever since that day we first left the Digital World four years back. I don't think I can continue like this anymore."_

_"Neither can I." Takeru wrapped his arms around Hikari's waist. "But Hikari, I love you."_

_"Takeru?"___

_"When we grow up, I want to marry you. I want to marry you, have children and raise a family. We'd be together until the day we die together." Takeru said. "There's just no other girl I've met that's as gorgeous and unique as you. Do you know that?"_

_Hikari__ was almost on the verge of crying. "Takeru, I've got a lot of secrets to tell you. Things I've kept for too long. But now I've realized it's time that I said…said…" She found difficulty to say it; she was too scared to admit it to Takeru._

_"Said what?"_

_"I love you too."_

_With that said, tears began trickling down both their faces. And at last, Takeru and Hikari for the first time, kissed each other. It was a kiss that would remain unforgotten, and it was a kiss that would bind these two __Chosen__ Children together, forever._

…

_Tokyo_

…

"And that's my final draft on the ending of Digimon Adventure: Zero 02! Hands down!" Takeru slapped the script down onto the table. Everyone in the conference room, including Patamon, had no idea what to say. "So, people! What do you think of that as a finale to this amazing show?"

Takeru's friends looked at him with unease. The Digimon did the same. Japanese executives and workers whispered among each other. Meanwhile Mr. Hayao Yamazaki, owner and head of Toei Animation, sunk his head with displeasure. He cupped his hands together on the table and sighed with grief.

"May we have your ratings, ladies and gentlemen?" Mr. Yamazaki asked everyone in the room. All started writing on their given sheet of paper that would decide the overall grade on Takeru's ending script.

"HUH?!" Takeru gasped suddenly and rubbed his eyes. To his shock, the majority had written down a big fat '0' on their sheet. "Patamon! How could you!" Takeru was disgusted to see that his own Digimon had also given him a 0 out of 10 rating. "Yamato, why?!" Even his older brother was turning him down. He delivered him the same mark too. "DAISUKE!" Daisuke was the only one who actually didn't give him a '0', but a '-1'. This enraged Takeru greatly; it was clear that Daisuke especially was VERY against the ending.

"Hikari, what about you?" Takeru turned to Hikari, who was blushing with embarrassment so much she had to turn away from most of the people in the room. "You liked it, didn't you?"

Hikari hesitated. "Um…er…I abstain from this discussion." She looked nervously at him before further saying: "Gomen nasai. I have to go to the bathroom." Hikari jumped out of her seat and left the room in a rush. Tailmon got out from her seat as well and followed. On the way out they almost bumped into Mr. Yamazaki's secretary, who was just coming in to serve everyone cups of hot green tea. Takeru felt that Hikari wasn't going to return.

"Mr. Yamazaki. You haven't given a rating." Takeru asked him. Mr. Yamazaki, with his miserable toady face, lifted up his sheet of paper to show his rating: '0'. "What?! What the heck is wrong with all you people? Can't any of you appreciate a romantic finish to the second series of 'Digimon'?" Takeru slammed his fist on the table, accidentally hitting the edge of his tea cup, which flung into the air and landed right on top of Mr. Yamazaki's bald head like a cherry on an ice cream sundae. Mr. Yamazaki did everything he could to keep himself calm, even though the tea was steaming hot, and was burning his scalp. This wasn't the first time Takeru had got him frustrated; because of him in the past, he was already losing some of his hair, not to mention that it had turned completely white and grey since he came into the Toei business. To make matters worse, he was also losing his eye sight. It was only recently that his eye doctor advised him to wear glasses from now on.

"Oops. Sorry, Mr. Yamazaki." Takeru took off his hat and bowed at him. The secretary came rushing with a towel and began wiping the mess off her boss' head.

"Um, Takeru." Yamato said to him. "No offence or anything, but has it ever come to your thought that your ideas for the ending are perhaps a little too…say, sentimental? Do they always have to end with you and Hikari?"

"Yeah, Takeru." Taichi added. "What about the rest of us? People want to know about the outcomes of all of us, not just you and Hikari."

"He's right, you know." Koushiro said while punching keys on his laptop computer. "According to our own character polls, it seems that many people are curious about how ALL of us will end up. See for yourself." He turned over his laptop screen for everyone to see. Looking at the charts displayed, it seemed that a lot of the Japanese people wanted to have the last episode of the season showing individually what happens to each character after their adventures.

Before Takeru could answer anything, he was being called by Mr. Yamazaki.

"Takeru." He said firmly but sternly. "You're fired."

Everyone in the room sat up and stared at Mr. Yamazaki with shock. His secretary stopped her wiping and looked at him too with great surprise.

"Sir." A male employee said, raising his hand. "Surely you can't be serious about that."

"No. My decision is final." He answered back and rolled his eyes at Takeru. "Takeru, ever since we began this second series, I had specifically appointed you to write the ending for it when the time would come. But so far you have given my company nothing but ridiculous overdone scenes involving Hikari and yourself…kissing. It disgusts me. And this is by far the worst one you have presented us with. This is a children's show, not a soap opera."

"But…"

"You have no excuses!" Mr. Yamazaki raised his voice. "You are just wasting all of our time here. Meanwhile 'Digimon Tamers' and 'Digimon Frontier' have to be further delayed, thanks to our inevitable problem with Zero 02's ending. And I feel that this has gone far too long; I've grown tired of it. So, you are now expelled from the Toei premises and you will no longer work here again. Do you understand?" He turned his head to him. Takeru looked most upset.

"I only wanted my character to be loved by someone." He said meekly. "Can't I have Hikari at least like me a little bit more than she does in the show? I mean, we already have thrown in romantic pairings, like Ken and Miyako." Takeru pointed to the couple sitting together next to him on the left. "And we also had Sora and Yamato." He pointed to them on his right. "Why can't we have just one more?" He pleaded.

"Romantic pairings is OUR decision. You and your friends have no right in creating your own. Your job was only to end this series sensibly. And since you refused to do so, I have no choice but to remove you from your post, permanently." All gasped at his last word. "Hence I have appointed Daisuke to replace you."

"ALL RIGHT!" Daisuke shouted and stood up, but looked at his concerned friends and sat back down on his seat sympathetically. "Sorry."

"But who'll play my part in the last few episodes?" Takeru asked. "You can't just remove Takeru with a snap."

"True. But that's already been sorted." Mr. Yamazaki said. A tall young teenager suddenly entered the room. To Takeru's eye, he looked suspiciously familiar to a certain character he knew from another show. "Trunks here is going to play your part."

"Don't worry, Takeru! You can count on me!" Trunks was in his Super Saiyan form, dressed up exactly like Takeru with a silly smile on his face. He winked and gave a thumb up to him. But Takeru still felt uncomfortable about this situation.

"But…he's from Dragon Ball GT!" Takeru exclaimed. "You can't put him in this show! Besides, his punky hairstyle will be a bad influence for all the little kids!"

"Casting him in is OUR decision."

"But…"

"Security."

…

"LET ME GO!" Takeru struggled as the security guards began to dragging him out of the building. "This shouldn't happen to a kid! Get your slimy hands off me now!"

Yamato, Gabumon and Patamon were following behind the guards, who were now taking Takeru towards the entrance gates. Their efforts to ask the guards to release him proved useless, since they only took orders from Mr. Yamazaki.

"Takeru!" Patamon shouted once the guards threw him out onto the street.

As the guards were leaving, Yamato, Gabumon and Patamon ran towards Takeru, who was sitting helplessly on his bottom on the road.

They saw that Takeru was feeling very depressed about this. Who would have expected Takeru to be thrown out of Toei forever in just one day? Everyone who was in the conference was devastated to hear about Mr. Yamazaki's decision. Takeru had been adored by so many fans, but also the whole cast and crew he worked with. All found him humorous, charming, and unique on many levels. Yet they also felt that Takeru had a special attention upon Taichi's younger sister, Hikari Yagami. It was quite obvious that Takeru was very fond of her. Though it was this fondness that made him drive Mr. Yamazaki crazy when he was asked to set up the ending of 'Digimon Adventure: Zero 02'. All that Takeru could think of was to have him and Hikari finally get together. However, Mr. Yamazaki believed that these two characters in the show were only meant to be good friends, and not eventual lovers. The cast and crew weren't completely against the idea though; the only reason why they turned down Takeru's ideas was because they thought it to be too exaggerated.

Takeru, especially at this moment, felt the same way too. Perhaps he had taken this personal relationship too far in his scripts.

"Don't blame yourself, Takeru." Yamato knelt down beside him. "Come to think of it, I'm already changing my mind about that ending. I didn't think it was that bad. You just need to work on it more."

Yamato could see that his brother was already crying. He patted him gently on the shoulder and started rubbing it gently, before giving him a hug.

"There, now. Come on, there's no need to so unhappy." He whispered in his ear. "It's not like it's the end of the world."

"It's not fair." Takeru sniffed. "Why do we ALWAYS have to take orders from Mr. Yamazaki, that jerk?!"

"Hey, listen." Yamato said. "That guy's just got some problems, okay? Nobody's perfect, and you're not the only who has to deal with him. I have to deal with him, the Digimon have to deal him, everyone in Toei has to deal with him. He owns the damn company."

Takeru gradually stopped his crying and calmed down. Yamato handed him some tissue and Takeru blew his nose.

"There, now. Feel a little bit better?"

"Not really. I'm still mad at him." Takeru answered.

"Why don't you go home and take a rest? You've had a hard day." Yamato helped Takeru to get up onto his feet and cleaned the dirt off his clothes. "Just tell mom the truth, okay? I'm sure she'll understand."

Yamato returned to the gates with Gabumon. Patamon stayed behind to give his farewell to Takeru.

"I'm sorry, Takeru. None of us saw this coming." Patamon said. "We can still see each other, though. I'll come visit you."

"Thanks, Patamon." Takeru smiled and gave a nod.

Patamon smiled in return and waved before flying back to the gates, which were starting to close. Takeru gazed up at the large Toei sign inscribed on the front gates, and scowled. He picked up a nearby rock and chucked it at the sign fiercely, making a slight dent on it. After having done that, Takeru straightened up his hat and left.

…

'Digitamamon's Coffee' was only a block away from Toei. Though it was also an inch away from getting sued by 'Starbuck's Coffee', whose creators accused Digitamamon of stealing their logo and incorporating himself onto it. It's been a mystery of how that Digimon managed to get off the hook, but his business was doing extremely well. Basically everyone who worked in Toei came here for a drink, a snack, or simply just to chat. And today was getting crowded…

"Ah, yes! Splendid choices, my friends!" Veggiemon started punching into his cashier machine after having taken drink orders from three Toei business workers. "Two vente Gazimon shakes and a grande Demon latte, coming right up!"

Elsewhere in the café, Vamdemon and MetalEtemon sat together on a table, smoking cigarettes and just taking a break from their work.

"If I have to sing one more time on that show, I'm going to put a gun in my head, and shoot myself." MetalEtemon sighed. "That Yamazaki is so dang irritatin' when it comes to his demands!"

"You said it." Vamdemon puffed out smoke from his nostrils. "My arms are killing me. I had to open my cape on fifty takes for only one scene because my bats kept squirming inside of me."

On another table, Ogremon was having a minor argument with his friends, Leomon and Juri…

"Oh, the nerve on that Yamazaki! It's not fair!" Ogremon growled at Leomon while crushing up his coffee cup in his hand. "How come YOU get to be in the third season of Digimon, while I have to work as the lousy cameraman?"

"Hey, I didn't make the choice." Leomon shrugged innocently. "I didn't even think I'd still be in the series."

"Mr. Yamazaki personally chose Leomon to be in it." Juri said, covering her mouth full of giggles at how annoyed Ogremon looked. "He never changes his mind about something once he's taken a decision."

Just to the table right next to them, Michael was talking to the Outer Senshi from the show 'Sailor Moon'…

"I hated the idea of a love relationship between me and Mimi on the show. But Mr. Yamazaki thinks it's best for both of us." Michael said to the four girls with absolute disgust. "HA! Can you believe that?! I'd rather be walking a tightrope in a three-lined circus, because I think it's all a hundred percent crazy!"

"Well, welcome to real world, Michael." Sailor Pluto replied, sipping her ice vanilla latte.

Just five tables away from them in the corner sat a miserable Hikari Yagami, stirring her coffee with her stirrer…

"Cheer up, Hikari." Tailmon said, sitting next to her. "It'll turn out okay in the end. It always does."

Hikari felt doubtful about that. In the past, Takeru had always been embarrassing her with his love endings. And today he had done it again. She couldn't predict how much longer she could stand this. Yet she could understand that Takeru was only trying to give the show a happier, more moving ending than its first season. And in reality, she actually did like him. But his attempts to show his love for her were not turning out too well. And now, luck wasn't coming her way, though, because she could see Junpei and Tomoki coming to sit on her table. Hikari didn't like company whenever she felt she wanted to be alone; she still wasn't feeling so good about what happened during the meeting.

"Hey, Hikari!" Junpei pulled up a chair and sat down with his sandwich and strawberry frappucino. "How are things going with you?"

Hikari gave no answer and didn't even take a glance at neither of her friends. She was simply too deep in thought. Tomoki could see how deep her eyes were glued to the table.

"Why are you not smiling, Hikari?" Tomoki asked curiously. "Did something bad happen to you? Did that Mr. Yamazaki get cross with you?"

Hikari looked at Tomoki and gave a small chuckle. "No, Tomoki. He didn't get mad with me. I've just been a little stressed from work recently."

"What? Has Takeru been…well, you know?" Junpei gestured.

"Yeah." Hikari sighed with grief. "But hey, I'll get over it."

"Well, I hate to break it to you, but he's just been fired."

Hikari stopped her stirring and looked at Junpei with anxiety.

"What?"

"It just happened five minutes ago. Everyone at Toei's talking about it."

Hikari was speechless. But before she could take time to slowly digest this information into her head, Tomoki interrupted them with bigger news.

"Hey, look! It's Takeru!" He pointed his finger outside through the glass next to them. Takeru was walking by, his face down and hands in his pockets. Hikari watched him closely as he passed by, but got up and ran out of the café when she lost sight of him. Tailmon indeed followed.

"TAKERU!" Hikari shouted.

Takeru knew that voice and therefore knew who was calling him. He stopped for a while and turned around to her. He saw Hikari's concerned face and gave no reaction to it. So much bad had happened to him today that he couldn't give quite a toss about how the girl he loved was feeling about him right now. It was all too overwhelming for him.

"Takeru. I heard about what happened in Toei." Hikari approached him. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry about what happened to you." She raised her hand and touched Takeru's dried up cheek.

Takeru angrily pulled her hand away.

"To hell with your apologies." Takeru said rudely. "Why do you always have to run away from me at times when I need you? Why can't you ever say something about my ideas for once? You never say anything about them, and now look at me."

"Takeru…"

Hikari tried reaching her hand out again to Takeru, but Takeru simply backed away from her.

"Don't touch me." He answered back. "Just…leave me alone."

Takeru had nothing more to say. So, without a wave or a goodbye, he turned his back on Hikari and Tailmon and left them.

"Hikari, do you think he'll ever get over it?"

"I don't know, Tailmon. I don't know." Hikari said as a tear ran down her face. "Come on. Let's go back."

Hikari led Tailmon back to the 'Digitamamon's Coffee'.

…

**One month later**

…

_Hollywood___

…

A loud knock banged on the door.

"It's open." A voice spoke out to the shadowy stranger outside, standing behind the door's foggy window, waiting to be allowed to enter the man's office.

The stranger grabbed the door knob and turned it. The door creaked open to reveal…

"Lieutenant Santino." Detective Eddie Valiant rose from his chair to greet his old friend with a firm handshake. "What brings you here?" The Lieutenant removed his cigarette from his mouth and flicked it aside. He took out a large newspaper and handed it over to Eddie.

"Read the front page." He replied calmly.

Slightly puzzled, Eddie opened up the paper to read the following headline:

…

**Toei Animation In Jeopardy In ****Japan****: Hayao Yamazaki Killed.**

…

"Well, excuse me, Valiant! But haven't you forgotten about poor little us?" A voice interrupted. "We were talking about something right before this buster rudely busted in!"

The Lieutenant looked behind Eddie at his desk, where two cartoon characters were sitting on their chairs impatiently. On the left sat Walt Disney's Donald Duck, and on the right sat Warner Bros.' Daffy Duck…it looked like the Lieutenant had interrupted Eddie Valiant at a most inappropriate time.

"Hey!" Squirmed Donald Duck. "Can't you see we're in a middle of an argument here?"

"Yeah, bozo!" Daffy Duck jumped out of his chair and started poking the Lieutenant in the stomach. "If you wanna talk to Valiant, go find yourself another time to speak to him!"

"Wait." Eddie said, trying to stop Daffy from causing another one of his pointless conflicts with strangers he didn't know. "Boys, I'm afraid I'll have to settle your problems another time. I've got important business to attend to here with my pal."

"Well…thanks for your help, Valiant." Daffy said sarcastically as he marched out of the office quite angrily. Donald followed him from behind…but was unexpectedly rewarded with a door slamming into his face, when Daffy purposely shut the door behind him.

"Dog gone, WA WA WAAAAKKK!!!!!" Donald flung the door open and chased after the loony duck, who was laughing his way out of the building.

The Lieutenant shook his head in grief and quietly shut the door.

"Toons…adults can't live with them, kids can't live without them." Eddie said, smirking as he looked outside his window, watching the ducks disappear. He then turned back to the Lieutenant. "Oh, please, take a seat."

The Lieutenant settled himself down onto Donald Duck's empty chair.

"So what's all this about?" Eddie sat back down onto his chair and looked at the newspaper's front cover.

"I was hoping you'd be able to tell me that." The Lieutenant nudged his head at the newspaper, encouraging Eddie to read the article.

Eddie did so, and became more intrigued by the more he read about it. He learned that there was something disturbingly familiar about this man's murder. According to what it said, Hayao Yamazaki was killed just last night, and there had been no distinct clues or traces left behind the scene so far, and the Tokyo police are still searching for evidence.

"Interesting, Eddie?"

"Kind of." Eddie said, putting the paper down after having read it.

"Just an hour ago, I got a phone call from the Tokyo Police Department, telling me about how this news has flooded all over Japan. It's scaring the bee Jesus out of everyone, especially the kids. 'Cause rumor has it, Eddie, that if Toei doesn't find the man behind this murder soon, the whole company will be shut down."

"What for?"

The Lieutenant shrugged. "No idea. That's all I heard…anyway, I've already booked two tickets for a flight to Japan this afternoon. You, and me. No one else. You got me?"

"Um, sure."

"This case ain't gonna be easy, y'know. They run things differently over there. So I suggest you take this case as if it's dependant on your life; if anything's messed up, who knows what might happen to Toei Animation. All I know is that tons of kids in that country would be disappointed. Not to mention that there'd be a big rise of unemployment for the people working there."

Eddie realized how much this case meant, though…"So how I fit into this picture, exactly? I don't even how to speak a word of Japanese. How will I be able to help out?"

"Simple." The Lieutenant smiled as he slipped a small book from the breast pocket of his jacket. "Learn as fast as you can."

He threw over to him a small Japanese phrasebook.

"Oh, boy." Eddie sighed, taking the book quite unwillingly. "This is gonna take a while."

"So will this case." The Lieutenant left his seat and walked to the door. He opened it and persuaded Eddie to leave first. "You ready, Eddie? Are you ready to take on perhaps the biggest case yet? The whole of Japan will be counting on you."

Eddie looked at the Lieutenant, smiling at him. The door had been left wide open for Eddie to step out first. He saw that this was another step into another case that could only be solved by him; he'd been working with cartoons for most of his life and he turning this one down would be a disgrace. And besides, he had no real reason why he should reject it. This was the next challenge for him. So Eddie smiled back at his friend, put on his hat and took up an empty suitcase under his desk, opening it.

"Let's go." Eddie quickly began packing clothes and equipment for his journey.

The Lieutenant watched without giving him any hand. He took out another cigarette and lit it.

"Oh, Lieutenant." Eddie said while moving about around the room, getting his things organized. "I noticed the papers didn't mention any details about Yamazaki's death…how was that guy killed?"

"You wanna know?" The Lieutenant asked. "When the Japanese told me over the phone, they sounded pretty freaked by it."

"I gotta know. Can't solve the case without knowing how the poor man died."

"He had a piano dropped on his head."

Eddie paused and looked at him with great uneasiness.

"What?"

…

_Author's Note: Please review…or else I'll have pianos dropped on all of your heads! And I know none of you would like that, would you? (evil grin)._


	2. The Head of Acme Corporation

_**Digital Monsters: Back In Action**_

_**By Charles Xavier**_

**The Head of Acme Corporation**

…

_Acme Headquarters_

…

"What?" He exclaimed. "What is that you say? Valiant has gone to Japan with that pea brained Lieutenant!"

Mr. Chairman couldn't help but laugh at himself when he heard the news. He swung around his chair hilariously, making himself dizzy. It made the sickness worse for him as he wore glasses. So he stopped, tidied up his messy orange hair and got up from his seat. He placed his hands on his hips and stepped forth upon the eight Acme VPs sitting around him. His red sneakers began squeaking on the newly mopped floor as he waddled like a constipated duck. He straightened up his dark grey suit, adjusted his glasses and grinned silly.

"Are you sure of this?" He asked one of his workers.

"Sure as ever, sir." Said Acme VP Stating The Obvious. "Their plane had just left for Tokyo three hours ago. They'll be heading for Tokyo within ten hours time at the airport. They'll soon be going off to investigate…"

"Fine! Fine! Fine!" Mr. Chairman gladly shut him up before he was to go ranting on, stating the obvious. "Very well. Those two detectives obviously know by now about the incident in…Toei Animation. But don't fear; a few of our friends will be expecting them there during their…pleasant stay."

One of the VPs reached over the desk at once and pressed his buzzer button.

"Yes, you!" Mr. Chairman turned to his caller.

"Are you sure they'll be prepared for Mr. Valiant when he comes? I mean, he's been a toon detective for many years now." Acme VP Nitpicking said. "They're going to have to take extra precaution with this man they'll be dealing with."

"Of course. They already know much about him, and they WILL know what to do, hopefully." Replied Mr. Chairman confidently. "I assume that you are all aware of how many cases Mr. Valiant has cracked during his career, how many toons he has helped, and how he managed to save Toon Town from near destruction in the past?"

All nodded at him forcefully.

"Good. Then you should realize how difficult our plans are going to get, because it won't be easy getting Mr. Valiant out of the way. Therefore I have already recruited an old rival of his, and a very good friend of mine."

All looked at him suspiciously; nobody knew who he was talking about. He turned to the entrance doors and beckoned.

"You may come in now, dear friend!"

The entrance doors suddenly opened, and in came a black figure that delivered all the VPs the chills; it was man in a black cloak, wearing a black hat, holding a cane in his gloved hands and bore a freaky grin with his teeth so white clean that they almost looked false. His boots marched loudly towards Mr. Chairman, and the VPs cowered under their desks, hugging each other and shivering with fear stamped on each of their foreheads.

They simply couldn't believe with their eyes of who was standing next to Mr. Chairman…the two stood side by side like brothers and pals.

"T-t-this can't be." Said Acme VP Bad Ideas, chattering on her nails.

"How could it be?" Said Acme VP Unfairly Promoted pointing at their visitor. "He's…he's supposed to be dead…this is impossible!"

It was possible. Nobody truly believed that Mr. Chairman could have actually managed to bring back someone who had been feared by both humans and toons. It was such an overwhelming feeling that it frightened the pants off everyone in the room. They felt like screaming, but didn't have the guts to even utter a single word out of their hesitating lips.

"Welcome back, Judge Doom. We missed you." Mr. Chairman smiled at him evilly. "How did everything go?"

"Perfect." Doom replied nicely in a disturbing manner that gave the VPs goose bumps. "Everything is in order for…Acme Corporation."

"Excellent." Mr. Chairman cupped his hands together and started to doodle with his fingers.

Judge Doom sniggered at him joyfully. And Mr. Chairman suddenly burst out cackling like a hyena, jerking backwards and waving his arms to prevent himself from falling over. All the VPs felt uncertain of what to do at moments they felt nervous and scared. So they slowly rose from their desks and tried to join their queer boss by laughing stupidly with him.

"MWA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! . HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!.."

"SILENCE!" Mr. Chairman snapped and broke the funny chorus. "Only Doom and I are allowed to laugh!"

…

Author's Note: Glad to hear many of you readers are enjoying this fic so far. But I'd like more reviews please! Arigatou!


	3. Hajime Mashite

**_Digital Monsters: Back In Action_**

**_By Charles Xavier_**

****

**Hajime Mashite**

…

_Tokyo__Airport_

…

"Konnichiwa…watashi no namae wa Eddie Valiant desu." Eddie's nose was stuck on the phrasebook the Lieutenant had given him back in Hollywood. Even when he walked out of the airport, he couldn't keep his eyes off the pages. He was taking his friend's advice to learn as fast as he could, but he hadn't been able to take in as much Japanese as he had hoped. All he was able to say so far were only a few short phrases like 'doozo yoroshiku' and 'hajime mashite'. It gave him quite a worry.

"Still learning, Eddie?" The Lieutenant asked. He knew he was having great difficulty getting his grip on the language.

"It's impossible. How can people speak this kind of stuff?" Eddie replied, a little stressed out.

"Don't get yourself all tense, pal. If nobody understands a word you're saying, I'll fill it in for you. I learned Japanese when I was a kid."

Eddie, relieved by his words, put away his phrasebook and shoved it in his jacket pocket.

"So, what are we waiting for here?"

"A friend of mine is supposed to meet me around here." The Lieutenant said, looking at his watch on his wrist. "It's bang on time. He should be here any minute now."

Eddie looked around and saw nothing but noisy cars driving by and chatty Japanese people walking past them. But then, something caught his eye when he looked across the car park area; beside a black limousine car, stood a tall animated man dressed all in black. He looked over at him and the Lieutenant, tipping down his black sunglasses he wore so he could get a good look at them. Seeing who they were, he left his position and approached them.

"(Ah, Mr. Santino.)" He spoke out to them as he came closer. "(It is our most extreme pleasure to see you again. Welcome back to Japan.)" He bowed at the Lieutenant and shook his hand. "(I also see that you have brought a friend along with you this time. How do you do?)"

It was hard for Eddie to understand anything he was saying. Yet he sounded very polite and friendly to him, so it was necessary to say something nice back to him.

"Um…" Eddie took out his phrasebook and rushed through the pages trying to find the right sentence. "Watashi wa Eddie Valiant desu. America jin desu. Hajime mashite."

Due to Eddie's atrocious Japanese tongue, the man found it most hard to distinguish what he was actually saying. He frowned and gave a look at the Lieutenant.

"(Oh, please excuse my friend Eddie Valiant. He just started learning Japanese the day we left America.)" The Lieutenant said to him. The man laughed delightfully as if he had just heard a funny joke.

"That is quite all right, Mr. Santino. I am sure Mr. Valiant here will feel better if we spoke in English. After all, it is a great necessity for every Toei worker to speak fluent English if he were to work there."

Eddie was now the one frowning. Somehow he had the feeling that he wouldn't be needing his phrasebook for much longer.

"It is an honor to meet you, Mr. Valiant. My name is Yamaki, and I apologize if I had caused you any misunderstandings just now." He bowed at him and shook hands. "Please forgive me."

"Um, no problem." Eddie replied sincerely.

"Ah, you are most kind, Mr. Valiant. If you and Mr. Santino could follow me to the car, we can be on our way to the Toei Animation studio."

…

_Author's Note: Ack! Another short chapter, and it wasn't even that funny! (Dodges flying tomatoes) Gomen nasai, I've just been trying relax during this last month of summer (sigh). So that's the reason why this part had to be cut so short. But I promise you, expect to see more Digimon characters making amusing appearances next, because…_

_Next Chapter: The Crime Scene._

_BTW: Any Digimon (or kids, grown ups etc) you'd like to see in particular?_


	4. The Crime Scene

**_Digital Monsters: Back In Action_**

****

**_By Charles Xavier_**

…

**The Crime Scene**

…

Eddie couldn't believe how technologically advanced Tokyo was compared to Hollywood, not to mention more populated it was. Crowds of people from every direction walked across the city streets. Cinematic billboards were seen on almost every block, showing strange and unusual looking cartoons. The Lieutenant didn't seem as amazed though, since this wasn't his first time here. Eddie stared wondrously

"Since when did you start to speak English?" The Lieutenant asked Yamaki, who was driving the car.

"It has become a new requirement in Toei Animation. Mr. Yamazaki expects all of us to speak fluent English these days." He replied nicely. "He's been making so many demands for the company for the past few months."

"Stiff competition in Japan, eh?"

"Oh, yes. Mr. Yamazaki has always been rivaling with companies such as Ghibli, Gainax, CLAMP, Bandai, Pioneer, Kitty Film…just to name a few. It hasn't been easy staying on top since us anime have grown so popular here."

While the Lieutenant and Yamaki continued their conversation, Eddie looked ahead of the road and saw that they were heading for the entrances gates of Toei, left wide open to welcome them in. As they drove underneath, Eddie noticed the main sign in front was shaped out a head of a laughing cat; this must have been Toei's main logo. But it looked as if somebody had hit something hard at it, as there was a dent made on it.

Once they passed the gates, Yamaki stopped the car and stepped out.

"Here we are." He assisted Eddie and the Lieutenant by opening the door for them. The two of them stepped out also, observing what was going on around them. "If you come this way, gentlemen, I will escort you to the warehouse where Mr. Yamazaki was…killed." His last word wasn't easy for him to say. He knew that what he was going to show them wasn't going to be pretty.

Japanese policemen were a many here. Some were walking about, chatting to each other, and others were questioning employees who worked at Toei. None of them paid too much attention to the newcomers as they were so busy. As Eddie, the Lieutenant and Yamaki walked their way towards the main building, Eddie couldn't help seeing various anime talking to the police. Among them, there was a shy but sinister looking school girl…

"I'd kill a student in my class, I'll tell you that. But Mr. Yamazaki…? I don't think so." Mitsuko Souma shook her head innocently at the police talking to her and her Digimon: Igamon. "I think you guys are seriously barking up the wrong tree here."

"Yeah, right." Igamon remarked smirking at her. "While you're at it, why don't you tell them that you're the worst Digimon trainer in the world! I don't even know why I ended up with you; you never care about me! In fact, you're the only reason you give Toei a bad name!"

"Baka!" Mitsuko took a stun gun from her pocket and shocked Igamon mercilessly with it. "Take this, you stupid Digimon! And this! And that! And…"

"YAAAAAEEEE!!!!!!!"

A dozen more police rushed towards Mitsuko to stop her sudden act of violence.

Eddie also walked by two giant water tanks, where Whamon and MetalSeadramon were being asked where they were the night before the crime occurred.

"Really, Officers, you're just wasting your time here; I don't see how MetalSeadramon or myself could have possibly committed the murder when it took place on land." Whamon complained. "Use your common sense, how could sea creatures like us just kill this man when his body was found miles away from any water?"

"What are you guys, numb nuts? I'm a vegetarian!" MetalSeadramon growled when he got annoyed with a policeman who asked him if he ever had thought of eating Mr. Yamazaki. "Sure, you might see me eat fish and stuff on the show, but that was just for my role. I've had to spit out fish so many times, that the smell of anchovies has gotten stuck to my tongue for the past three weeks!"

Not far from the aquatic Digimon, stood Jenrya and Ruki with their Digimon: Terriermon and Renamon.

"For the last time, my name is Jenrya! NOT Henry!" Jenrya was getting steamed up when the police, for some unknown reason, constantly referred to him as Henry Wong instead of Jenrya Lee. "Sheesh! Is being half Chinese half Japanese such a big deal with you guys?"

"You ought to calm down." Ruki said calmly. "They're only asking questions, not saying killed anybody…ow! Renamon, be careful with that thing, will you?"

Renamon was kindly beside Ruki, trimming her finger nails. "Sorry Ruki. I'm still a little nervous about this whole murder thing."

"We were all hanging out in Ruki's house the night Mr. Yamazaki was killed." Terriermon told the police. "None of us knew that the poor guy was going to get it. Isn't that right, Henry…?"

"MY NAME IS JENRYA!" Jenrya yelled outrageously.

Just beside the entrance of the warehouse Eddie was about to enter, IceDevimon and Yukidarumon were sitting on a crate, drinking their coffee while policemen asked if they had any grudge against Mr. Yamazaki.

""Well, he was a little edgy sometimes." IceDevimon said as he thought. "Oh, boy. Did I ever tell you the time I had to give him a personal massage? Now THAT was frightening, ugh…" He began to shiver with goose bumps. "But anyway, that's not the point. The thing is that I hadn't a lot against him. So what about you, Yukidarumon? You got anything to say?"

"Nah. I'm just going to stay cool." He answered, sipping his cup. "Ah…that's some damn good coffee Digitamamon makes."

…

"Don't worry, they're with me." Yamaki presented the police inside the warehouse with his identification and told them that Eddie and the Lieutenant were with him. He then guided the detectives through the place, passing by more police, cargo boxes, expensive looking computers, hundreds of different hanging costumes, and generally every piece equipment that Toei used to film their programs. "Here we are. This is where we found Mr. Yamazaki dead."

Yamaki stopped in front of a large grand piano, where beneath it on the cracked ground was a chalk drawing of Mr. Yamazaki's position when he died. With his arms and legs spread out, and his head crushed directly under the piano, Eddie knew that there was no doubt that this murder was accidental. Japanese inspectors were present, looking for fingerprints around the rope tied to the piano. So far they had found nothing.

"Gee, Eddie." The Lieutenant nudged his friend. "Who the hell do you think could have done this?"

"No idea…but I know someone who's done this kind of thing before."

"Sure, pal. But I don't think it's likely to be him this time…you got any eyewitnesses here, Yamaki?"

"We have one." Yamaki took out a small booklet from his breast pocket. "I believe her name is Sora Takenouchi; actress and costume designer of the show 'Digimon Adventure: Zero 01' and 'Zero 02', both run by Toei Animation. She is the one who reported the murder and right now, she is currently being held under police custody for further questioning. Would you like to see her?"

The Lieutenant gave a nod.

…

"Miss Takenouchi?"

"Yes?"

"I'm Lieutenant Nicolas Santino." He presented his badge to her, and so did Eddie. "This here is Detective Eddie Valiant. And we'd like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind." The two took their seats and placed their badges and hats onto the table.

"I already told the police everything I saw. What else is there that you want to know?" Sora couldn't stand sitting in her lonely and empty room for much longer. For hours she had already spoken to several Japanese officers and detectives. And while she was alone, the only thing she could do was look at herself at the rectangular mirror on the wall behind her.

"Please Miss Takenouchi, if you can take just one more questioning, then you will be allowed to go."

"Are you sure about that, Mr. Santino?"

"Yes, I am. And by the way, you can call me Lieutenant. Now, about us…Eddie and I have been specializing on toon cases like these for a long while, just to tell you. And we have been helping toons in Hollywood for some time. So you need not be alarmed by our appearances, because we are here to help you, and more importantly, help solve this mystery and save your company. We are not here to harm you, we are not making any accusations, and we only want to hear the truth about what you know. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Liuetenant. I understand."

"All right then, Ms. Takenouchi. Could you tell us your story?"

"Certainly…" She cleared her throat and began talking. "It started one night when I left Yamato's apartment. I just had an argument with Yamato at that time, and I was in…well, not in one of my best moods. I decided to walk home since I did not live too far away, though it meant I had to pass by Toei. The area over there is always known to be quiet during night time, because the place closes in the early evening before sundown. But it was when I walked past the gates, and saw that they were left open. It was strange, and I felt that something was wrong. So I stopped, but then I heard a loud crash coming from in there. I quickly rushed in, looked around and finally went into the warehouse where I found…where I found…oh…sumimasen."

Sora bowed as she began to trail off. The Lieutenant could see she couldn't stand talking about this incident over and over again. It was overwhelming for her.

"Miss Takenouchi…would you be able to describe the sound you heard when you were outside?"

"I believe it was the sound of, a falling piano. It must have fallen from a very high point, because when I found him, the piano was partly broken when it hit the ground."

"Did you see or hear anybody else with you?"

"Mr. Valiant, I heard nobody and I saw nobody. All I saw was Mr. Yamazaki, already dead…"

A few minutes passed…

"Thank you, Miss Takenouchi. We appreciate your cooperation…you can go now."

But just as the Lieutenant said that last sentence, Yamaki came knocking at the door.

"Yes, come in. We're done here." The Lieutenant said.

Yamaki came in accompanied by two policemen behind him. He was happening to be holding something suspiciously in his hands; it was a white crumpled hat.

"I believe you will be interested to learn that we had found this inside the piano that killed Mr. Yamazaki."

The Lieutenant got up from his seat and was handed the hat. He checked inside it to find a label attached, and read the name printed: Takeru Takaishi.

…

_Author's Note: Thanks for all your suggestions! I'll try to find throw the Digimon you've recommended to me at some point. But in the meantime, my stomach is growling for MORE REVIEWS! So keep them coming please!_


	5. The Trial

**_Digital Monsters: Back In Action_**

**_By Charles Xavier_**

…

**The Trial**

…

_"Help!"__ Hikari screamed once Belial Vamdemon grabbed her with his giant hand and lifted her up. "Somebody please help me!"_

_"Mwa!__ Ha! Ha! Ha!" The evil Digimon laughed. "None of you children can stop me now! Even your strongest Digimon have proved worthless compared to my almighty strength. Now you shall all suffer!"_

_"AIIIEEE!!!!"__ Trunks dropped his sword and started jumping frantically around like a frightened school girl desperate for the toilet. "What'll we do? What'll we do? What'll we do?"_

_"There's nothing we can do." Ken said, stepping back from their unstoppable enemy. "We've tried everything so far, we'll never be able to beat him!"_

_The situation for the __Chosen__ Children was growing hairier by the seconds, and the fate of Earth and the Digimon was turning grim. Thousands of children, whose Digimon had also attempted fighting Belial Vamdemon and failed, started to back away fearing that the worst was going to come. But little did they know that their bad luck was just about to change._

_"Never fear, my unfortunate companions! I am here!"_

_Everyone looked up upon the thunderous clouds to see a tall, muscular, and handsome figure in a red caped uniform flying courageously through the thunder, and distinctly showing his clean shiny teeth and dashing white smile._

_"Look up there!" Miyako cried out astonished at their mysterious visitor. "Up in the sky!"_

_"Is that a Garudamon?" Said Armadimon._

_"Is that a WarGreymon?" Added Iori._

_"Is that my mommy?" Trunks whined._

_"NO!" Hikari screamed at the top of her voice while a smile surfaced on her face at the same time. "IT'S SUPER DAISUKE! OUR HERO!"_

_However, before anybody could start cheering, and before Super Daisuke could come down to beat the living daylights out of Belial Vamdemon, a voice from the studio crew shouted out to whole cast._

_"CUT! CUT! CUT!" Ginji Fukusaku, director of the Digimon episode being filmed at this moment, stopped everything at once. "This is all wrong! Lose the lighting, stop the music, clean up the set, actors get back to your original places!" _

_It was clear that he didn't like the scene at all. Actually, he hated it._

_"What the hell is this all about?!" Ginji marched angrily towards Daisuke, descending to the ground and detaching himself off the strings that held him in the air. "Just when could Daisuke fly, huh? And why has he become some random super hero?"_

_"And when did Trunks suddenly turn into a super chicken?" Trunks was complaining about how sissy his role in this episode was. He took out his script and read through it. "Who's the idiot who wrote this stuff?"_

_"He's right." Ginji said with full agreement. "Whose lousy idea was this, anyway?"_

_"Why, mine." Daisuke kindly replied._

_"WHAT?!"__ Ginji gave out a big reaction and looked at the front cover of Trunks' script. His name was clearly printed there, and Giniji started shouting at Daisuke silly. Trunks, not surprisingly, threw his script down and cut it in half with his sword._

…

_Hollywood_

…

"Ah, I've seen this Digimon rerun before." Bugs Bunny sat lazily in the living room on the couch. Alongside him were his friends Porky Pig, Mickey Mouse and Goofy. The four of them were sharing a bowl of popcorn while they watched Ginji and Trunks arguing endlessly with Daisuke on the television. "These episodes just ain't getting any better these days."

"Yeah. And whatever happened to Takeru?" Mickey Mouse said as he continued to watch closely at what was going on within the argument; it seemed that it was turning a bit violent. "And who's that look alike pointing his sword at Daisuke's throat?"

"Ah, who c-c-c, uh, ca-ca-ca-cares?" Porky Pig moaned. "These J-J-J-Japanese cartoons are really getting d-d-d, er, d-d-d-dull, not to mention too c-c-c, ah, co-co-co-complicated."

"Let's see what else is on." Bugs Bunny took out the remote control and skimmed through the channels, until he tuned into the Toei News Channel. "I wonder what Toei Animation's been cooking up recently, especially after what's his name got killed."

"Didn't you hear?" Said Goofy. "Toei's been on a total standstill since the owner died. And come to think of that, I also heard Eddie Valiant's over there trying to solve who done it."

"No kiddin'." Bugs Bunny replied, but attention was drawn more to what was going on the TV screen. "Check out what's happening on TV!"

Everyone set their eyes back to the television to see a young Japanese woman and an anime hosting the latest new broadcast in Tokyo.

…

_"Ohayo gozaimasu.__ My name is Nakama Yuchie."_

_"Ohayo gozaimasu.__ My name is Ryo Akiyama."_

_"And welcome to the Toei Animation News Network. Just two days after Mr. Yamazaki's sudden death, Toei Animation has still been suffering gravely after a wide majority its shows had been halted. But now, authorities believe that they may indeed have their main culprit: eleven year old Takeru Takaishi, former actor and writer in Toei Animation. Earlier this morning, police had discovered a hat located inside the piano that killed Mr. Yamazaki. When inspected, there was a label clearly marking Takeru's name. With not a minute to waste, police rushed towards the Takaishi residence, where Takeru was found asleep in his bed, wearing nothing but his underpants. After shaking him up from his sleep, police insisted that he put on some clothes before arresting him. Natsuko Takaishi, mother of Takeru Takaishi, did show some resistance when police escorted Takeru out of his room. When questioned, she denied any knowledge about Takeru's whereabouts on the night the murder took place. So we now go live with reporter Izumi Orimoto at the Takaishi residence…"_

_"Ohayo gozaimasu!"__ Izumi waved at the screen with a microphone in her hand. "I am here reporting live outside the door of this apartment, where I am waiting for Takeru Takaishi to come out with the police. Though beside me here I have his mother, Natsuko Takaishi. Now Miss Takaishi, if I am correct, is it true that you had no involvement in Takeru's crime?"_

_"Of course not!"__ Natsuko cried, looking most distressed on the screen. "There has to be some kind of mistake here, honestly. Takeru wouldn't do anything bad like this, why, I'm his mother for God's sake!"_

_"You know what they say, Miss Takaishi, tell it to the judge." Izumi stopped when she saw two policemen dragging an uncooperative and cuffed up Takeru out from the door. Izumi at once turned around and placed her microphone at Takeru. "Takeru, there you are! What do you have to say to all your fans out there right now?"_

_"Get these damn cuffs off of me!" Takeru said furiously. "I don't know what's gotten into you guys, but whatever this is about, I can tell you that I had nothing to do with any of it!"_

_"Move out of the way!" One of the policemen rudely pushed Izumi aside and Takeru was taken down the steps of the apartment and into the police car waiting down on the road. Once everyone was in, it drove away._

_"There you have it, folks. One of Toei's finest and most beloved anime, gone bad…more about this, this afternoon, when we'll go live in the trial that will decide Takeru's fate. Back to you, Nakama. "_

_"Thank you, Izumi. As she had stated, the trial on Mr. Yamazaki's murder will take place at __1 o'clock__ this afternoon in central __Tokyo__, where friends and relations of Takeru Takaishi will be attending. This has been by far the first case in Japanese history of an anime having been known to kill a human being. Authorities are both shocked and baffled about this, and many others have found it hard to believe. A similar case had once occurred in the __United States__ three years ago when Maroon Cartoon star Roger Rabbit was thought to have killed owner of Acme, Marvin Acme. However, charges against him were dropped when he was clearly proven innocent in court. Despite that little was found at the scene of Mr. Yamazaki's death, rumors are spreading that the trial will reveal the evidence police have found that may very well defy Takeru as the killer. Over to you, Ryo."_

_"Thank you, Nakama. In other related news, the search goes on at its fourth week for Nanahara Yamazaki, son of Hayao Yamazaki, who mysteriously disappeared at his home without any trace whatsoever. A man with a wife and two daughters, all three family members were away in __Hokkaido__ on the day Nanahara Yamazaki left them. Even though evidence is skeptical, the family believes that he may have in fact been kidnapped, though others suspect the worst. Whether this is related to the case of Takeru Takaishi remains a mystery…"_

_Tokyo_

…

"All rise!"

Policemen, anime and worker from Toei all rose as human Judge Takeshi Kitaro walked into the court room and went to his sitting place. In front, there stood Takeru Takaishi, dressed smartly in a black suit and tie. Next to him there was his defense lawyer, Gennai, who was also properly dressed for the occasion, but he couldn't stop combing his spiky brown hair since he wanted to look fancy. Opposite them sat the prosecutor, Archnemon, along with her assistant, Mummymon. They appeared in their human forms and they too were in very formal dresses. On the front row, Natsuko Takaishi, her father Michel, Hiroaki Ishida, Yamato, Gabumon and Patamon were there, all with concerned faces and all with anxiety. Behind them sat all of Takeru's friends and various Digimon that knew him so well. Among them, was Hikari Yagami, who wasn't feeling too good about this situation. Tailmon had been trying to calm her down ever since they came into the court, but she obviously couldn't help.

"You may take your seats now, the court is now in session." Judge Kitaro spoke out and sat down comfortably onto his seat. Everyone else followed.

…

Three hours had passed. Many of Takeru's friends, many of the Digimon and every single member of his family had been summoned by Archnemon and were asked to answer everything they knew about him. And in every end, all of them had positively felt that Takeru had no actual reason why he would commit such a horrible act that would disgrace his whole family. Even when they knew that Mr. Yamazaki had fired him, they still disbelieved it because Takeru was simply not that kind of crazy person. However, Archnemon always kept in mind about why exactly Mr. Yamazaki had done what he did to him. She knew that the real reason behind that would have eventually motivated Takeru to murder…

"Thank you, Millenniumon. I have no further questions, so you may take your seat now."

"Thank God for that. This chair's seriously killing me." Due to his huge size, Millenniumon couldn't stand sitting on his small wooden chair for much longer. But it was a relief that he didn't have to go through that again. He returned to the benches with the other Digimon.

"Now, then. The court is…"

"One more second, your honor." Archnemon stopped Judge Kitaro from speaking out. "I have just one last witness to call."

All looked with surprise.

"I call upon Miss Hikari Yagami."

Whispers were heard everywhere. Tailmon held onto her hand, trying to give her pal some comfort. Hikari was shocked to hear that she was being called up to talk about Takeru. Slowly, she rose and walked forward past the rows of Digimon and friends looking at her with troubled looks on their faces. She then took her seat and sat down quietly in front of the whole audience.

"Now Miss Yagami. My first question…how long have Takeru and yourself known each other for?"

"I'd say, between nine and ten years. We've been friends ever since we first met in school."

"I see. And could you tell us what he is like whenever you are with him?"

"Well, he is always very friendly, but sometimes a little shy…usually that's when he asks me out to go out with him. He seldom gets angry, he is very sincere, and he never turns down on me when I'm in need of help. Though occasionally…um…" Hikari bit her lip and fiddled with her fingers. "I have a feeling that he does think about me a lot, when we're not together."

"Oh, how so?" Archnemon raised her brow. It looked like things were getting somewhere for her. "Would you mind explaining this to us please, Miss Yagami?"

"Um, well, I could see this because during the time he worked with us, he always tried to put in several scenes of the two of us with each other in the show as many times as possible. And the finale especially…oh, dear."

Hikari covered her mouth and wished she hadn't mentioned that last part.

"Yes, what about the finale?"

"Takeru…Takeru wanted a touching finish…and…he wanted us to finally get together. But none of us at Toei thought it was such a great idea, and his attempts made Mr. Yamazaki kick him out for good."

"And do you remember how he felt at that time?"

"He…he was mad."

More whispers began to surface among the audience.

"He was even mad at me for not being there for him….I'd never seen Takeru so upset before like that. I didn't think I'd mean so much to him…so much that if he couldn't see me anymore, it would possibly drive him…"

"Insane?" Archnemon finished her sentence.

"What? No, that's what I meant, I…"

"There you have it, people. Miss Yagami has just pointed out that Takeru did indeed have some grudge against Mr. Yamazaki, inspiring him to resultantly kill the old man by taking him into a warehouse and dropping a piano ten feet above his head."

"That's not true!" Hikari exclaimed. "Takeru would never do anything like that."

"She's right." Natsuko stood up and joined in with the argument. "As my own son, I know that Takeru wouldn't have done anything so beastly to kill a man of great importance to Toei Animation. It just wouldn't be in his blood to do something so cold-hearted like that."

"Order!" Judge Kitaro struck his hammer. "Let Archnemon finish what she has to say."

Natsuko silently sat back down.

"I have no further questions to ask, Miss Yagami. You may take your seat." Archnemon said in a polite tone and allowed Hikari to leave. "Your honor, I have no more witnesses. So I leave everything else now to you and the jury."

…

Another hour had passed. The jury was to return any minute now to state their verdict upon Takeru. The Digimon and people from Toei were gossiping to each other, expressing how much they thought Takeru was more innocent than guilty. Takeru's friends thought that it was out of Takeru's personality to even kill somebody, for surely he would be smart enough to know the dire consequences. Hikari and Patamon didn't even want to believe that Takeru was responsible for any of this; it was like some nightmare they couldn't wake out of. Gennai was hoping that the tables would turn for them, but whether his prayers would be answered was unknown. Archnemon really got some information out when she had talked to Hikari, and had a great effect upon the jury. Mummymon and herself were perhaps the only ones not looking so troubled. Meanwhile, Takeru's family were constantly hoping for the best; it seemed that a miracle could only save them now.

As for Takeru himself, his mind was becoming weary as too many problems were circling around his head.

"Takeru, don't you lose hope." Gennai patted him on the back. "Remember, I'm by your side, and there's still a chance that we might get through this. So we mustn't give up now."

Just then, the jury came back inside and returned to their seats.

"Jury, have you come to a verdict for Takeru Takaishi?" Judge Kitaro asked them.

All set eyes towards the jury. The jury was conceived of ten anime, who suspiciously looked very much alike. It wasn't a surprise, however, since they were in truth technically one and the same person; the Agent Smith clones raised their arms at the same time and pointed their fingers at Takeru, saying:

"Guilty!" **(1)**

Loud gasps began erupting, followed by mumbling that echoed around the whole room. Natsuko burst out crying while Hiroaki took her into his arms and Michel rubbed her back. Yamato felt nauseous and Gabumon held onto him with fright. And Patamon, he was completely speechless.

"Takeru Takaishi." Judge Kitaro said boldly. "In all my life, I had never thought it would ever come to this. But due your intolerable crime, you have given me no choice, but to offer you the highest penalty that any anime has ever received…on behalf of anime, humans, our fellow Emperor and the entire nation of Japan, I hereby sentence you to be executed…by the DIP."

At that second, the whole of the courtroom almost turned into a riot. Anime and Toei people began moving about aggressively against the police who did their best to secure them back. Shouts and pleads were delivered towards Judge Kitaro's decision by Takeru's family.

"This is unacceptable!" Hiroaki shouted. "DIP has been banned in the United States for the last three years and is still counting. Why must you bring this kind of horror into our country now?"

"Please, your honor! Don't you think this is too much?" Michel cried out. "Takeru is just a kid! Insist on something else!"

"WHAT KIND OF MONSTER ARE YOU?!?!" Screamed Natsuko. "THIS IS UNHUMANE!"

"Who's the yellow bastard that made YOU the judge, anyway?!" Yamato insulted.

"One more word out from any of you and you will all be put behind bars!" Judge Kitaro threatened the family. "I will cope no more with your squirming in my courtroom!"

"I can't believe this! What the heck is going on around here?" Takeru was growing increasingly upset by this time, and uncontrollably furious. He obviously couldn't take this anymore. "This isn't a trial, this is some screwed up demented hell hole! You stupid people will believe ANYTHING you see, and that's what makes you so gullible! Can't you even understand that I've been framed here? Weren't you even listening to what my family and friends had to say about me, Judge Kitaro? And that goes for you too, jury! Just because a little hat with my name on it was found at the scene, doesn't mean I have to be the only one poked at! Do you really have to believe that because of one puny hat, I had to be the one responsible for Mr. Yamazaki's death?"

"Indeed, Takeru." Archnemon replied. "But may I inform that we recently obtained fingerprints found on the rope that dropped the piano on Mr. Yamazaki's head…and they just so happened to be yours." She took up a sheet of paper from her table to show him the sheet that claimed the fingerprints matched Takeru's perfectly; on it were photos of the fingerprints themselves. "Here I have the confirmation papers that strictly conclude that the fingerprints found at the crime scene belonged to none other than that boy you see over there."

Silence filled the room.

"Is it really true?" Natsuko asked meekly. "Honey…is what Archnemon saying really true?"

For the first time ever, the anime started to feel doubtful about Takeru's innocence.

"Takeru…why? Why did you do it?" Gennai leaned carefully away from him.

"No…" Takeru shook his head with utter denial, even when he wasn't so sure himself. Tears were flowing down his cheeks, and his body was trembling as if he had seen a ghostly apparition. "…no…this has to be somebody's sick joke; it can't possibly be true. I did not kill Hayao Yamazaki…"

"Takeru! As judge of this court, I must say that this is the most appalling kind of behavior I have ever seen. You ought to be ashamed of yourself!"

"I DID NOT KILL HAYAO YAMAZAKI!!!!" Takeru jumped out of his seat and slammed his fists onto the table, making Gennai nearly tip off his chair. "How many times do I have to repeat myself?! I did not kill Hayao Yamazaki!"

"Judge, I don't think he killed him either!" Patamon came flying towards his friend, willing to support him. "I'm his personal friend, and if he said he didn't do it then I would know he didn't do it, no matter how strong the evidence may be. You, on the other hand, are a son of toad who just doesn't have any sympathy towards us anime. All you expect us to do is entertain for you people…YOU should be the one who ought to be ashamed of yourself!"

"How dare you! Don't you know who I am? You have no right to argue with me about my decisions!" Judge Kitaro was highly enraged, and signaled police to come forward. "Police…take Takeru and his unmannered Digimon into a cell at this instance!"

Though before the police could take action, Takeru hastily approached the nearest policeman and snatched his pistol gun from his trousers pocket. Taking the weapon into his hands, he pointed it first to the group police in front of him, who quickly backed away. He then turned around and pointed it to the other group of police coming up from behind. The Toei people and anime, except Patamon, ducked down for cover underneath their benches. Gennai took cover underneath the table. The Judge sat still like a statue, petrified.

"Everyone stay away from me!" Takeru cried while his fingers began shaking around the trigger of the gun. "This has gone long far enough…and I'm not going to take this anymore."

"Takeru, you don't have to." Patamon said to him. "Because I'll be right beside you, all the way!"

"Then let's get out of here." Takeru answered. "Let's get out of here now!"

Within a flash, Patamon quickly morphed into Angemon, and Takeru got onto his back.

"Mom, Dad, Yamato, the rest of you guys, I'm sorry for doing this, but I have to go out and clear my name for you and every anime in Japan. Otherwise my name isn't Takeru Takaishi!"

Tossing away his gun, Takeru held on tight onto Angemon as they went sky high towards the ceiling, crashing through it like a rocket powered ship. Seconds later, they were up sky high above the clouds and nowhere to be seen.

Right after that, unfortunately, anime and people grew rowdy and started another riot again in the courtroom. Police ran over to prevent any one of them from getting near to the judge, who was trying to recover himself from his shock. The workers of Toei pushed and shoved, and the anime were shouting bad things at the judge about how cruelly he and the Japanese law were currently treating them, after seeing what he had decided to do with Takeru. The place soon turned into mayhem, and everything was out of control.

Archnemon and Mummymon, in the meantime, were hiding under their table and staying out from the madness occurring before them.

"I'm sorry to report this to you, sir." Archnemon said speaking on her cell phone. "But I'm afraid Takeru has gotten away from us."

"What shall we do?" Mummymon asked.

"I'll tell you what to do." The voice muttered to them on the phone. "Find him! Find him and make sure he doesn't ruin our plans! Do you understand? Find him quickly, or else I'll be giving you two the DIP!"

While Archnemon and Mummymon were having their sides of a problem, Izumi Orimoto happened to be present in the room, and boy, how much she was struggling to get some footage here.

"Quick, Grottomon. Turn on the camera!"

Grottomon did what she said and pointed his camera at her.

"Konnichiwa! Izumi Orimoto reporting here live in central Tokyo, where a riot has suddenly broken out during the trial of Takeru Takaishi. I personally had been able to sit through everything that had happened, and judging by the state of how things are looking now, I can say it's absolutely pure bedlam! After many of us were stunned to hear that Takeru Takaishi was found to be…hey! Give that back to me, you slob!"

"TURN THAT CAMERA OFF!" A policeman took away Izumi's microphone and placed his hand onto the camera screen, switching it off instantly.

…

**(1) Okay,** **I admit it that was badly timed humor there, since this is supposed to be quite a serious moment. But I just couldn't resist it! I had always thought it amusing to have Agent Smith act as a jury. Hee! Hee!**

_Author's Note: I'm always enjoying reading all your reviews, thank you so much! Let me know what you think…and by the way, have any of you noticed anything funny about the names of some of the people? Examples: Nakama Yuchie, Takeshi Kitaro, Ginji Fukusaku?_


	6. A Visit From Hikari

_**Digital Monsters: Back In Action**_

_**By Charles Xavier**_

…

**A Visit From Hikari**

…

_"Konban wa._ _My name is Ryo Akiyama."_

_"Konban wa._ _My name is Nakama Yuchie."_

_"And welcome to the Toei Animation News Network at 7 o'clock_ _in the evening. Two hours have passed after alleged killer Takeru Takaishi disappeared. And an hour after that, swarms of anime have paraded across the streets of Tokyo, protesting against the recent announcement made by the Japanese government. Sources say that if Takeru was not to turn himself in within the next twenty-four hours, every anime in Japan_ _would strictly be put under martial law. Quite surprisingly, owners from every anime company have turned against the decision as well. Among them, Hironobu Samaguchi _**(1)**_, owner of Square-Enix, was especially outraged and said: 'What has happened to this country, has the world gone mad? Why must our beloved anime be treated this way now?'. Regardless of the animes' demands, the Japanese government is unwilling to change their actions. And while Takeru is still reported to be missing, police advise viewers to call their nearest police station if they are ever to encounter him, as he is now considered to be dangerous and armed…that is, with a Digimon called Patamon."_

_"Thank you, Ryo. When we come back, we'll bring you more news about how SkullMeramon got the biggest tattoo in world record history, why inviting a Blitzmon in your house can cause pest problems, and last but not least, the status on Black WarGreymon who is apparently suffering a serious case of anorexia according to medical doctors. All this and more, coming up after these messages."_

…

This was Eddie's first time staying in a five star hotel in Tokyo. His private room in particular was luxurious, relaxing, unnerving, and best of all, it had a wide plasma TV attached to the wall with numerous channels on it. It sure was very generous of Yamaki and his friends to make the Lieutenant and himself most comfortable on this visit; they paid for most of the costs in the hotel after all.

While Eddie was watching the news on the TV, he was distracted away when somebody came ringing his doorbell. Knowing that he was being expected, he stretched his arms, got up and went over to the door. Peeking through the peephole, he saw Hikari Yagami standing there rather bashfully, positioning her hands together in a polite form, looking as if she was a maid coming to clean up his room. By her side stood Tailmon, looking unafraid of who might answer them.

Eddie turned the knob and opened the door.

"Excuse me, sir." Said Hikari in a most formal manner. "I'm very sorry to disturb you, and I may be mistaken here. But would you happen to be Detective Eddie Valiant by any chance?"

"That's me, kiddo."

"Would it be all right if I came in, Mr. Valiant?" Hikari asked meekly. "I in no means want to cause you any interruption, but…"

"No, it's fine. Come right in."

Eddie opened the door and allowed Hikari and Tailmon to step into his room. Hikari gave a friendly smile and bowed her head at Eddie, and then she followed him into his bedroom where she sat herself down onto a chair nearby the TV. Eddie sat on his bed facing his visitors, saying:

"So, what can I do for you, Miss…"

"Hikari Yagami." She bowed again at Eddie. "Nice to meet you. This is my Digimon, Tailmon. I was hoping that I would be able to find you here as soon as I had hoped."

"Really…?"

"Yes, really. Tailmon and I have come here with concern about the Takeru Takaishi case…and please, don't get me wrong or anything, but I believe that Takeru is innocent…"

…

_"Hi, there!_ _My name is Wallace, and do you ever get hungry in the middle of the night, while you're working on that sweaty chair, or maybe when you're exercising out in the gym? Well, look no further! Burgemon King has all your answers right here! Yes, now with our 100 percent fat free Boarmon burgers, fresh Reaper fries, crunchy Gomamon fish sticks, refreshing Chocomon milkshakes, and our special Omnimon sundaes, you can eat all that for only 500 Yen! Yes, you heard me correct, 500 Yen! Oh…and did I mention that Burgemon King is now open twenty-four hours? Whoops! Looks like I just did! And have I gone crazy, you might ask? Well, I'm not going to tell you, because you're going to have to find out yourself when you come over here and accept this irresistible offer we are making…only for a limited time in participating restaurants. So get off your lazy bums and get hopping to it! You got the urge, get to Burgemon King!"_

…

While the TV was continuing to show random advertisements, Eddie's attention was attached to what Hikari had to say about everything she knew about Takeru and how she positively thought that he wasn't the culprit of this horrendous murder.

"Mr. Valiant, I know it's hard for you to understand. But Takeru and I have been close friends for years now, and I know him dearly as one of his closest friends. He would never have done anything cruel as this, even if he did lose his job."

Eddie couldn't fully disagree. After learning what happened in the trial, Eddie felt that the Japanese government were pushing themselves over the limit when it came to the mention of DIP and martial law. Furthermore, there was the fact that neither the Lieutenant nor himself were notified that fingerprints were found at the crime scene…it sounded slightly suspicious.

"Well, Hikari. I'm afraid I can't help you with the whereabouts of Takeru or Patamon, if that's what you're asking for. Those two could be miles away from Tokyo by now, hiding someplace remote."

"Not exactly, Mr. Valiant. Though I am not a hundred percent certain, I may know where Takeru might be."

Eddie lowered his brows at her. "What makes you think that?"

"Takeru and I have a part time job outside of Toei Animation. But after he lost his position, he got too depressed and quit. As for me, I work there less often these days, because Toei has been offering me a bigger role in the series."

"What's this place called?"

"It's called Casino PicoDevimon, and is owned by PicoDevimon himself. It is one of the most successful casinos in the whole of Japan, and some of us Toei anime work there as well."

"A casino?" Eddie wasn't expecting that sort of answer. It seemed unusual for anime of Hikari's age to be working in a place like that…but then again, this was Japan. And as the Lieutenant said, things were run very differently here. So without bothering to fuss further about Hikari's occupation there, he asked simply: "Why do you suppose Takeru would be there?"

"Takeru always visited me there when he was unemployed. And tonight's one of my shifts; he's bound to be waiting for me there's…there's nobody else he can go to, you know. His family is currently being surveyed by the police, so he can't go up to them. And I don't think his other friends would risk helping him out…they're all busy protesting on the streets."

Eddie thought deeply about this situation. It would have seemed unwise if he spread all this to the Lieutenant or Yamaki, as they would likely rush over to the casino and completely rampage through the place searching for Takeru. So no…he couldn't tell them anything about this.

"Mr. Valiant, I've heard many stories about you in the west. You've solved crimes, you've help many cartoons like us, and you've never let your hopes down on anybody. And I know it is difficult for me to ask this, but since you managed to get Takeru into this whole mess, perhaps it would be possible for you to get him out it." That wasn't the first time Eddie had heard somebody say that to him in the past, and this time it was more serious. "If we find him together, then there is a small possibility that we could find a way to prove that he's innocent before time runs out for us anime…I'm sure you heard that by tomorrow, life for us is going to become more restricted than we had ever expected. So will you please help us, Mr. Valiant?"

She looked desperate for an answer. Eddie realized how she felt, and therefore wasn't willing to let this young anime feel disappointed or upset in any way. Rubbing his chin in thought, he finally responded:

"Ah, to hell with it…I'll help you out, Hikari."

"Oh, thank you so much!" Hikari clapped her hands and shook Eddie's hand, bowing many times at him once more. "Thank you so much for helping us…I won't forget this moment!"

"Sure."

…

_"Heeya!_ _Welcome, we're the Hoi Brothers, and this here is the TokyoTraining_ _School_ _for the traditional Chinese Martial Arts, run by our very own sensei, which we simply call…Sensei! If you are curious to know more about Chinese culture, and the styles of fighting, then you've come to the right place! We will teach you how to control the energies in your body, we will teach you how to balance the yin and yang, and we will teach you how to avoid getting bullied when you are in school. But that is not all! We will also teach you how to skip on water, climb up walls, wield dangerous looking swords, and smash through powerful objects, such as your bathroom door! So what are you waiting for? Come on over to the TokyoTraining_ _School_ _for the traditional Chinese Martial Arts and enroll now! Alternatively, you can e-mail us at shaolinnoodles(at)toei(dotcome) **(2)** or telephone us at 075-889-TOFU. Lines are open twenty-four hours a day…er, except on Chinese New Year!"_

…

Leaving the TV on, Eddie left his bed and went into his bathroom to do his business.

"So when do you have to get to work by?" He shouted out.

"Oh, not for another hour." Hikari sat softly down onto Eddie's bed with Tailmon. "It's quite a distance away from here, but if we take the Locomon Express Line, it will only take five minutes to get there from here!"

Tailmon grabbed the remote control lying at the end of the bed.

"Huh, I wonder if they've got my favorite channel." She said, surfing the channels, trying to find her right one. "Ah, here it is!"

…

_"Are you ready to be entertained, tonight? Because right now, you're watching DH-1! Music television WE control! And the only music channel network in the whole of Japan. Isn't that right, Megumi?"_

_"That's right, Reika. And looking at the music charts for this week here, we still have at number one for its sixth week, Yamato Ishida's explosive smash hit song: 'Digimon Killed The Pokemon Star'. Down in second place is Culumon's first song debut: 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Mephismon'. That's followed in third place by LadyDevimon's most controversial song: 'Hit Me Toei One More Time'. And later on, we will also be going behind the music, with Tonosama Gekomon, who's still trying to get his groove back after gaining 200 pounds of weight when he went under an ice cream overdose."_

…

**(1) I know it's supposed to be Hironobu Sakaguchi, but I just wanted to make him seem fictional…**

**(2) Something went funny with the format when I tried to put in the e-mail adrress name. So excuse me if the '(at)toei(dotcom)' thing has confused any of you readers.**

_Author's Note: Thank you again for your reviews. _


	7. The Return of Acme

**_Digital Monsters: Back In Action_**

****

**_By Charles Xavier_**

…

**The Return Of Acme**

…

"Good evening, people. May I welcome you to my new Acme Underground layer in Tokyo…I hope all of you had a safe and pleasant trip?"

An energetic Mr. Chairman glanced around at his VPs in his meeting room, all looking rather jet legged after having had to travel ten hours on an airplane to get from America to Japan. Even though they managed to get some rest during the flight, it wasn't enough to keep them awake from the tiring scheme their boss had been plotting for goodness knows how long. So far nothing had been going wrong for him, well almost…

"I assume all of you realize why we have traveled here to Japan tonight…so I won't bother explaining that. However in the meantime, only one small threat remains for Acme. And that is the anime Takeru Takaishi! We must find that boy before Eddie Valiant gets to him first; we mustn't risk having our covers blown by that pesky duck brained detective! Do you hear me?" Mr. Chairman began to go into a small fit of rage. "NOBODY is going to foil our plans tonight! We won't let the good guys win this time…NEVER!"

"Yes, sir!" The VPs nodded instantly.

"How do you suppose we will find Takeru?" Judge Doom asked, standing boldly next to Mr. Chairman. "The boy mustn't have gotten too far, even with that feather winged companion of his."

All the VPs sat forward on their chairs, rubbing their chins curiously and awaiting to hear their boss' response.

"You have a point there, Doom. But fortunately for us, I have managed to make some secret acquaintances at Toei Animation. And one of them happens to be a stinking rich anime…named PicoDevimon." He rubbed his hands together, smiling fiendishly. His VPs knew absolutely nothing of who PicoDevimon was, but they were just about to find out. "May I please have your attentions to the television monitor screen!"

Mr. Chairman turned around to the glass cinematic screen behind him and drew out the remote controls from his pockets. But once he turned it on, he was having great difficulty getting the right channels. It wasn't surprising, anyway, as he was never used to the Japanese channel systems.

…

_"Watashi…Watashi…"_

_"KEEEE-KIIII!!!!"___

…

Card Captor Sakura: The Sealed Card movie was being shown, where Sakura Kinomoto was bashfully finding it hard to admit something emotional to her friend, Syaoran Li. But sadly for her, Kero butted in when he found his favorite dish, cake, sitting in front of him on a table undisturbed.

"Damn Japanese programs!" Mr. Chairman saw that this obviously wasn't the right channel. So he continued to search. "Why don't they ever print on the English translations on these controls? How am I supposed to know what to press on these wretched things!"

…

_"MIAKAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!"_

…

Now the TV had switched onto 'Fushigi Yugi', where poor Yui was getting sexually assaulted. Doom and many of the VPs in the room covered their ears from her unbearable shrieking.

"GAH! I hate this show!" Mr. Chairman gritted his teeth with frustration. He was getting even more aggravated when the remotes weren't quite functioning properly; it was clear that the batteries weren't fully charged.

…

_"Country road…"_

…

The Ghibli Movie Channel was on, and to no surprise, it was showing a movie: 'Whisper of the Heart'. Everyone shut their ears again, moaning as none of them could stand listening to Shizuku singing 'Country Road' with her friend Seiji, playing a violin.

"You, over there!" Mr. Chairman glued his eyes at Acme VP Never Learning and pointed at him sternly. Never Learning gazed around the room with confusion at the other VPs, until he pointed at himself. "Yes, you!" Mr. Chairman spouted out. "Come over here and take care of this problem for me!"

Never Learning left his position and went up forth to take the remote controls from his boss' hands.

"Don't stop searching until you find a blue bowling ball creature with wings grinning right at you!"

…

The Locomon Express Line was unbelievably fast, well, in Eddie's point of view anyway. It certainly made the Red Car in Hollywood look like a short lived kiddy show. The seats in the coaches in particular were comfy, with waitresses coming by every so often serving hot towels, snacks or beverages. The tickets were expensive, for a fairly short trip. But hey…everything in Tokyo had pretty high prices…this was only one out of many.

"You actually get to work like this every time?" Eddie said to Hikari, sitting just beside him.

"No…I only do this once in a while, usually when I'm with Takeru. Students in schools are dying to get this kind of treatment on trains, you know, and that goes also for some anime." Hikari turned over to the other side of her seat for one second, to see how Tailmon was doing at the window seat. "Everything all right, Tailmon?"

"Fine." Tailmon was busy reading with her nose stuck in her favorite book: Digi-Potter and the Order of Phoenixmon. "You HAVE to read this sometime, Hikari, these Digi-Potter series are just getting better and better!"

"These Digi-Potter books have really gone crazy over the Digimon lately." Hikari looked back at Eddie explaining. "I think I'll go take of read of them myself when I've got time."

Eddie wasn't too interested about books for the time being. Right now he was glued to the mini-television screen displayed in front of him.

…

_"Konban wa!__ Welcome back to the late Toei Kids Channel. I'm your host here, Lilymon. And coming up in fifteen minutes, we've got everybody's favorite little engines for all you cute kiddies out there. Yes, it's 'Trailmon the Tank Engine and Friends'. And don't forget, if any of you answer this following simple question of the day, you and two of your friends will receive free tickets to see the premiere of the most anticipated motion picture yet: 'Trailmon and the Magic Railroad'! Coming soon to theatres everywhere! So here's the question: Who was apparently accused of murdering Hayao Yamazaki? Was it a) A crazy Korean sumo b) Takeru Takaishi or c) A ferocious Chinese Panda. If you know the answer, please call this number below: that's 075-328-BAKA. Be quick and grab those movie tickets fast before they get grabbed away…but for now, let's return to two of the most immature Digimon, Gotsumon and Pumpmon!"_

_"Uh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh."__ Gotsumon was sniggering idiotically at himself, sitting on a sofa lazily like a couch potato along with Pumpmon next to him, who was only sniggering pointlessly back at him in return:_

_"Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh."_

_"Huh, huh, huh…this is cool." Gotsumon said. "Huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh…we've like, got own on TV show. Huh, huh, huh, huh, huh, huh…"_

_"Yeah!__ Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh…this rocks! Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh…THIS ROCKS! Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh…but you stink!"_

_Gotsumon__ slapped Pumpmon constantly in the face silly._

_"Shut up, damn it! Nobody asked for your thick headed comments! Don't make me have to kick your butt again!"_

_"Hey, cut it out, butt hole!" Pumpmon violently leapt onto Gotsumon got into a fight with him. Soon Pumpmon was literally sitting on his head, rubbing his bottom around his face. "Have a taste of this coming for you! Heh, heh, heh!" _

_'The End' icon came up suddenly and Lilymon appeared on screen before the show was to become too vulgar. _

_"Well, that's all we have time for Gotsumon and Pumpmon. Join them tomorrow for more incredible adventures, and who knows what they'll be up to next! 'Gotsumon and Pumpmon' has been brought to you in association with Zudomon's Zaniest Waterslide Park, Takeshi's Castle: Digimon Special, and…oh, my! My personal favorite: Cooking with Mimi Tachikawa: The Female Iron Chef!"_

…

"I'm amazed this channel's still running." Hikari commented. "Strangely enough, those two Digimon are getting widely popular for teenagers rather than for the kids."

…

_Author's Note: Can any of you guess what popular MTV program I was imitating there with Gotsumon and Pumpmon? And would any of you readers like to see more Digimon commercials, TV shows etc. in future chapters?_


	8. Casino PicoDevimon

**_Digital Monsters: Back In Action_**

**_By Charles Xavier_**

…

**Casino PicoDevimon**

…

_"Duck season!"_

_"Wabbit season!"_

_"Duck season!"_

_"Wabbit season!"_

_Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck continued bickering about what hunting season it was, so that Elmer Fudd could shoot at least one of them. However, Bugs' quick wits and clever craftiness never failed to reveal Daffy's own flaws when trying to outsmart somebody._

_"Wabbit season!"__ Bugs said._

_Daffy, now fed up with this pointless argument, grabbed the barrel of Elmer's gun aimed it at his face, shouting: "DUCK SEASON…FIRE!"_

…

Agumon, Gabumon and Piyomon were sitting together with their eyes stuck to Sora's TV, watching a very unusual cartoon called 'Looney Tunes'. And that was certainly what the Digimon thought about these cartoons. Every minute there'd be something crazy happening in it. For example, just after the Digimon saw Elmer fire his gun, it was hard for them to believe that Daffy's head was still intact to the body, and only his bill was out of position…for it was seen placed behind his head instead of front. And even though the program was subtitled in Japanese, none of them could quite figure out why some of the characters were speaking with funny lisps.

"Boy, these Looney Tunes are crazy." Gabumon scratched his head. "They are funny, but crazy."

Sora Takenouchi more than welcomed Agumon and Gabumon to stay at her place, while Taichi and Yamato were still busy joining in the demonstration marches in Tokyo. Piyomon seldom got to hang around with Agumon and Gabumon anyway, after Sora's flower shop, so called 'Flowers R Us', was growing into a huge success. Such as success that Piyomon has had to help Mrs. Takenouchi with all the swarming customers each time she needed a hand.

"Are you guys watching this show again?" Sora came into the room, seeing what the Digimon were up to. "Here…I know a better channel than this." She picked the remote control and switched over to the Japanese Disney Channel. "This guy is ten times as funny as any cartoon I've ever seen…even Dr. Slump!"

…

_"WHOOOOOAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!"_

…

Goofy was on, up to one of his silly antics again. Sora couldn't restrain herself from giggling at the clumsy toon, simply acting like nothing but a buffoon and just…a goof.

"Piyomon, I want you to stay here with Agumon and Gabumon." Sora said, heading for the entrance door and putting on her shoes. "I need to go out tonight and shop for a few items. There's some macaroni cheese in the microwave if you're hungry, but for Pete's sake, if you want order pizza, please call me first to ask my permission!"

"No problem, Sora!" Piyomon replied. "Have we ever let you down?"

"Yes, you have…do you remember that time you guys ordered a triple Mushroomon pizza WITHOUT asking and left it standing in my kitchen to stink for a whole week?"

"Um…no?" The Digimon shrugged; they were too idle to recall the incident when their minds were adrift away to the television.

Sora sighed stressfully. "Look…just call me before you order anything, all right?"

"Fine, fine. We'll do it, Sora." Agumon said, waving his paw at her to 'shoo' her away. "We'll call you if we're going to order food."

"Okay, then." Sora opened the door. "I might return a little late. So if my mom comes back before me, just tell her I'll be back before midnight. Wakarimashita ka?"

"HAI!" The Digimon all shouted together, and Sora shut the door.

…

Outside of the building was a humongous moving picture of PicoDevimon, designed with neon lights. The animation consisted of PiceDevimon presenting a cheeky grin, while opening his wings to reveals bags of money underneath his arms. By this appearance, Eddie could most likely tell the attitude of the casino's owner: a sleaze bucket. And that's what he was, no doubt. He was bossy, overly strict and couldn't give a toss about his employee's personal problems if there were any. All he cared about was making business in his place…some of the anime from Toei came here for a part time job to earn more money. And PicoDevimon was some of the few anime in Tokyo who was known to pay his workers fairly and decently…but not always.

"Well, this is it: Casino PicoDevimon." Hikari said to the toon detective. "Takeru's bound to be in there somewhere, I hope."

She led the way towards the grand entrance, where two macho security guards in black suits were standing on both sides. Just when the guards made way for Hikari, Eddie and Tailmon and opened the doors for them, somebody from inside was coming out, accompanied by a small child who was apparently getting kicked out. Eddie, Hikari and Tailmon stopped when they saw a little boy being escorted out of the casino by another security guard.

"Now run along back to your home, little boy." The guard knelt down and told the blond boy kindly, waving a finger at him. "This place isn't suitable for young kids like you to be playing about in."

"For God's sake, that's the third time this month you people have thrown me out of here! Do you have even the slightest idea of who I am?" The boy snapped back at him annoyingly. "Don't you even recognize these wings I have on my back?"

"Sure. I recognize those wings." The guard answered sarcastically. "But it's little too early for Halloween, don't you think?"

That had done it, and the boy was outraged now. Without warning, he evolved into his Satan mode. And Eddie was almost scared off his pants, when he saw he had changed into a giant monstrous beast.

"RAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!"

"AIIIIEEEEE!!!!!!" The beast picked up the terrified looking guard, pleading for mercy. "PLEASE…PLEASE! FORGIVE ME! I'm sorry…I'm so sorry! I'd forgotten that it was only you, Mr. Lucemon! Please put me down!"

Satisfied to see how guilty the guard felt, Lucemon put his victim down gently and changed back into his original form.

"That's better." Lucemon said, wiping his arms and straightening himself up. "Now if you don't mind, I'll be returning back to the casino. And tell PicoDevimon that if he or any of his workers ever force me to leave again, I'll have him for dinner!"

"Of course, Mr. Lucemon." The guard smiled forcefully and delivered many bows to him as the Digimon marched back inside. "Have a pleasant night, sir."

Uninterested to talk about this bizarre encounter, Eddie, Hikari and Tailmon entered the casino.

…

"You are certain that Takeru will turn up?"

"You betcha he would, sir. Or my name isn't PicoDevimon!" The fiendish little Digimon said to the monitor screen. In his private office, Archnemon and Mummymon were present. Both stood firmly behind PicoDevimon's desk like toy soldiers, facing the screen to their boss. Between them, stood a suspicious stranger in black, dressed in a thick sweater, dark jeans, heavy boots, bore leather gloves and had a woolen ski mask worn over his head to conceal his identity. "That sucker would go through anything to find Hikari here! Why, I'll even take her hostage if I have to get his attention…she should be showing up here any minute now!"

"Very well." Mr. Chairman said. "Here is the two million yen I promised to give you for his capture…do use it wisely."

The stranger in black stepped forward to PicoDevimon's desk, and set down a black suitcase. Opening it up, PicoDevimon almost spun off his chair when he gasped graciously at the heaps of money inside. For a second, he felt like he was in sweet Heaven.

"YOWZAS!" PicoDevimon cried. "I've hit the jackpot!"

"Don't let me down, PicoDevimon." Mr. Chairman spoke severely. "Do not fail me, or else I'll get mad…and you wouldn't like it when I'm mad." The monitor screen zoomed out sharply, showing the person standing behind Mr. Chairman: Judge Doom. Doom demonstrated as he slipped on his rubber gloves and opened a large barrel of fresh DIP beside him. PicoDevimon and his friends felt their stomachs churning when setting sight upon the horrible toxic liquid before them. They began to sweat drop fearfully. "Doom here will be very happy to deal with you, if you make me mad."

…

"Ladies and Gentlemen, step right up here and be amazed when you see Wizarmon's Wonderful Abba-Kadabra tricks!" Wizarmon announced, standing on a wooden stage among his audience. With him was his lovely assistant, Floramon. "I will show you tricks that no magician has ever dared to attempt, tricks that will turn your heads upside down so far that you won't even remember what hit you. So I strongly suggest to all you adults not to attempt or recreate any of these acts or tricks you are about to see at home under any circumstances whatsoever."

Wizarmon removed his hat and presented it to his audience.

"See here, that nothing is inside my hat. Not a fly, not a piece of hair, not speck of dust. So now, with my trusty magic staff, I will take all risks and summon upon into my hat, the most ferocious and most abominable monster ever to walk upon this Earth! So terrifying that all those who have set eyes upon it have been left mentally scarred for life. So horrific that Hell itself had to spit it out because there was simply no room… Now don't any of you walk away or be frightened…I am a highly trained professional, and I am fully aware of the highly dangerous act that I am about to perform. Rest assure, that nothing should go wrong at anytime…or you can call me the worst magician ever to exist in Japan!"

With his magical powers, Wizarmon waved his staff above his hat and chanted some magic words…

"Hocus Pocus, Magic Maker! Show me the accident in all of nature!"

A puff of smoke clouded the stage. But when it cleared, everyone could see Wizarmon's face. And he wasn't frightened…no, far beyond it: he was PETRIFIED. He could have wet his pants at that moment, if only he were desperate to go. His blood quickly ran cold when he saw the monstrosity that was sticking out of his hat. Floramon recoiled back with extreme dread, her lips mumbling gibberish as she didn't know what to say. The audience gasped quite gruesomely, but none of them were as afraid as Wizarmon. And rather ironically, some of them were giggling because…

"YOO-HOO! Lover boy, it's Lena Hyena!" **(1)**

Yes, cartoon character Lena Hyena had magically popped out of Wizarmon's hat. And those who were familiar with her knew exactly what she adored most in the whole wide world: men. And Wizarmon was of no exception to her.

"OH, NO! NOT YOU AGAIN!" Wizarmon tried to run away from the man-crazy toon, but Lena caught him before he could make his escape by grasping his arm. "Floramon, please help me!"

"Come to Lena! HOO! HOO! HOO!" Lena dived back into the hat with Wizarmon's arm, trying to pull him down inside with her. Wizarmon did what he could to hold back, while Floramon took his other arm and pulled away from Lena's direction, starting a tug-of-war game against her.

"Don't worry, Wizarmon. I'll get you out of this!" Floramon exclaimed.

While the amused audience watched what was happening, a few of them walked away and went to play the Roulette games, run by Bokomon and Neemon. Bokomon was taking in everybody's bets, while Neemon was the one hosting the game. This was a favorite game for both men and women, and it was hard getting seats around the table.

"Okay, dokey! Let's spin that wheel!" Neemon said as the wheel began to spin. "Around and around it goes…when it stops, nobody knows!"

When the wheel stopped turning, there was a loud noise mixed with cheering and crying that filled the whole table. Eddie Valiant had never expected the Japanese to act so wildly when it came to gambling. He thought they'd act more formal, since that was how they always behaved. But then again, they had to have some fun every now and then.

Following Hikari and Tailmon across the casino, they soon reached the Women's Changing room.

"Mr. Valiant, would it be all right if you waited outside here while I get dressed?"

"Sure, Hikari. Take your time, I'll be around here."

So Eddie stood alone, waiting patiently outside. While doing so, he couldn't help notice the Black Jack table nearby. Over there, Piemon was dealing cards to his players: Starmon, Revolmon, and a couple of people who looked disturbingly like members of the Yakuza.

"Hit or Stay, Mr. Starmon?" Piemon asked him politely.

"Well, looks like I'm going to win this round again!" Starmon laughed; he currently had 20 and there was a VERY slim chance of his rival Revolmon in winning this time. How much further would his luck push him after all? He had already won three times in a row, and he was happy to double his bets and go on to win a fourth round. "Sorry to have to do this to you, pal."

"Aw, damnit! You have to be kidding me here!" Revolmon realized that this wasn't his day. In rage, he took out his guns and raised them high towards Starmon. "I suspect you're cheating!"

"No, don't you go crying to me, Revolmon. You know I'd never do that to you; this is all being played fair and square. And I'm sure tomorrow will be a brighter day for you…it's just too bad you had to get 19 now." Starmon didn't mean it, as usual. He only pretended to care. "And if I was cheating, then you could strike me down on my knees, call me Charlie and HIT ME!"

"Oh! I'm terribly sorry, sir!" Piemon announced once he gave Starmon his next card. "You've just hit 22! You loose, I'm afraid, leaving Revolmon the winner of this round!"

'WHAT?! BUT…B-B-BUT…"

"BWA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" Revolmon laughed victoriously at the devastated Starmon, looking pale as ever. "Serves you right…serves you right…SERVES YOU RIGHT!!!! AH! HA! HA! HA! HA! HAAAAA!!!!!"

Revolmon began firing his pistols inside the casino aimlessly. And little did he observe that one of his shots bounced up to the ceiling, making a large dent of it fall directly onto his happy face. Now Revolmon was coughing up dust, and Starmon was the one laughing back at his clumsiness.

…

"Hikari?"

"Catherine…?" Hikari was given quite a surprise when she bumped into Catherine in the changing room. "Catherine, it is you! How are things going with you?"

"Ca va bien, Hikari. And I hope everything is going zee same with you and Tailmon, non?" Catherine bent down to give a wave at Tailmon. "How iz zee petit chat doing tonight, huh?"

"I'm fine." Tailmon answered. "How's Floramon doing with Wizarmon's new act recently?"

"Uh…well…I am not too sure, but I believe zat it iz going fairly well."

…

Floramon was losing the battle with Lena Hyena. Already she had succeeded in dragging Wizarmon's upper torso down inside the hat. Now all that remained outside for Floramon to hold onto was Wizarmon's legs and bulging bottom sticking out of the hat.

"Uh-oh. This isn't looking good at all!" Floramon said to herself. "Hold on, Wizarmon! I think I can get you out there this time!" Floramon pulled back with all her might…only to tear Wizarmon's pants off completely. "Whoops…"

The audience laughed again when they were able to see Wizarmon's bare legs and more humiliating, his red polka dot boxers.

…

"PicoDevimon iz becoming more and more impossible everyday, since business haz not been doing so well lately. And especially tonight wiz zee whole Takeru matter going on, you know." Catherine was glad she wasn't the only anime working tonight. She was happy to see her old friend come and cheer her up. "PicoDevimon's given me a longer night shift since most of our workers are off in zose protests…c'est incroyable!"

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Hikari said, looking a little unhappy when her mind thought about Takeru.

"Oh, no offense, Hikari. I did not mean it zat way about him." Catherine apologized and took her friend's hand dearly. "Pardon…it iz my fault. I did not want to upset you about Takeru."

"Oh, it's all right, Catherine. You don't have apologize." Hikari wiped off her serious face and changed it into a smile. "I'm sure Takeru is…"

Hikari paused when she heard a deep male voice somewhere in the room, and all the other women froze too.

"Hey, hey, hey! This is pretty nice place with all you hot ladies…I don't think I've ever been thrown out of here before."

"AAAA!!!!" All the women shrieked in terror when a small purple Digimon was seen running about, dashing past the showers, toilets, over women, between their legs and laughing hysterically like a filthy pervert. When the Digimon made its way up to Hikari and Catherine, the girls rolled their eyes down to the floor to see a sniggering Impmon hugging their legs, and looking up on their open dresses.

"Hey, girls! Great view from down here!" Impmon gave a high whistle, gazing up at their underwear. "I should come here more often!"

Hikari and Catherine felt fully embarrassed and their faces blushed. But then after that…

"BAKAAAAAAA!!!!!!" Now furiated, both of the anime screamed out and constantly whipped Impmon with their towels aggressively. "BAKA! BAKA! BAKA! BAKA! BAKA!"

Tailmon and the women joined in on the beating.

"Hey, stop that! Stop! Stop! STOP! This is no way to treat a Digimon!" Impmon's words weren't able to get across to the dozens of angry women beating him senselessly for his moronic behavior. "Ladies, I'll be good! I'll be good!"

Impmon was driven out of the changing room, and Eddie was the first one to see him rush out of there like a speeding race car.

…

Floramon was STILL fighting to save Wizarmon from the hideous Lena…or what was left of him. Only half of his leg was sticking out from the hat now, and the poor Digimon was holding on for dear life to it.

"I've still got you, Wizarmon, and I'm still going to get you out of there. Believe me, I'm not pulling your leg this time!" The audience laughed at Floramon's unintended pun joke. "Gosh, that Lena's strong. I've never seen anything quite like this befo…"

Before Floramon could finish, her sweaty hands accidentally slipped out from Wizarmon's leg, letting it drop right into the hat. The audience fell silent when they realized that Wizarmon was gone.

"Oh, dear." Floramon picked up Wizarmon's hat and tipped it upside down, hoping that something was to drop out. But her thoughts proved wrong and nothing came out. "PicoDevimon's not going to be happy about this."

…

"HMPH! I loathe zat Digimon!" Catherine snorted. "Zat imbecile is always up to no good!"

"I don't understand how he manages to get his way past security." Hikari thought. "Impmon's been banned from this casino four times already. It makes me wonder what PicoDevimon's guards are doing every day."

"Ah, who knows?" Catherine shrugged. "It's tough being zee boss around here, n'est-ce pas?"

"You're right there, Catherine." Hikari walked over with her friend towards their own lockers, unlocking them with their personal keys. "So how have you and Michael been getting along?"

"Ah, mon Dieu...I do not think our relationship iz going to last much longer. I feel zat Michael haz been drifting away from me recently; we have not spoken in zee last two weeks…and I think he haz some attraction on your other friend, Mimi."

"Honto desu ka?" Hikari said, placing her hand onto her locker's handle. "I haven't noticed that at all."

"Well, mon amie. Perhaps you should open your eyes a little more towards your friends; you've been thinking far too much about Takeru ever since he got thrown out of Toei Animation."

"I'm only worried about him, that's all." Hikari looked unhappy again. "He's gotten himself into so much hassle lately. I mean, look what's happened to him now. He's made world history in becoming the first anime fugitive in Japan!"

"Oh, Hikari." Catherine conforted her. "You should always look on zee bright side, no matter how much gets life you down. It iz like what us French say…que sera, sera: whatever will be, will be. And I have a sixth sense that he still likes you…but do you still like him?"

"Nani?"

"I believe zat you and Takeru share something very special in common together, even from zat very day you two first met." Catherine nudged her friend and whispered in her ear. "It iz very clear to me zat Takeru was not writing zose silly scripts for fun. And you know zat too."

"…"

"He worked day and night, trying to think up ways to express his long admiration for you, which tells me zat Takeru was simply too shy to tell you in real person, non? But no matter how hard he tried, you only shied away from him."

"Yeah, but…what's your point?"

"You know exactly what my point iz…you have to face it, Hikari. He's in love with you, and you feel zee zame way about him too. Stop trying to rezist it or it will make Takeru only more unhappy..."

Hikari wanted to take Takeru off her mind. So she turned to her locker and opened the door; though she had no expectation to find that something very cramped, but something very alive, was waiting for her inside.

"SURPRISE!" A gigantic spider-like creature jumped out of Hikari's locker and grabbed Tailmon by firing a cobweb rope onto her and pulling her away. "HEE! HEE! HEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!"

At that instant, all the women inside the changing room screamed again and went down onto the floor. The creature took Tailmon into her arms and spun around to face Hikari and Catherine, grinning at them villainously.

"Archnemon!" Hikari yelled, stepping forward to protect Catherine.

"Sorry I had to crash in there, but you know how much I love making surprise entrances…but for now, it's time for you and your Digimon here to come quietly with us, Miss Yagami…or else!"

"Or else what?"

"Or else…" Tailmon attacked Archnemon by sinking her teeth into her hands and biting them fiercely. "…YEEOOWWW!!!!!!!!!" Archnemon dropped Tailmon at once and waved her hands in pain. Tailmon took this time to run to Hikari's side and confront her enemy.

…

Eddie heard a clamorous voice inside the Women's Changing room, and it didn't sound like somebody had broken a fingernail. Far worse, it sounded like pure danger. So regardless that women were only allowed inside the changing room, Eddie took no chances and raced inside undetected.

"AAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!" Eddie was welcomed with an endless chorus of more screams from the Japanese women that were more than shocked to see him. For that second, Eddie felt that his nose was about to leak, from looking at the splendid sight of them. But his eyes were moved elsewhere, when he heard a woman's voice saying:

"Get back, Hikari!"

Eddie ran past the gawking women and stopped when he found Angewomon wrestling against Archnemon. Archnemon didn't have too much difficulty handling with Angewomon, and she easily finished her off by taking her arms, swinging and tossing her aside, making the angelic Digimon smash through the wall and end up collapsing in the shower room.

"Angewomon!" Hikari cried. But Archnemon wasn't done yet. She crawled through the hole she made in the wall and approached the recovering Angewomon lying on the floor. Archnemon was going to take action before her opponent had time to get up, but something hard and solid struck her on the back of her head…literally. It felt like a small pebble or stone.

"Hey, eight legs!" Eddie shouted at her from behind. Archnemon snarled back and scowled at the man presenting his badge at her. "I'm placing you under arrest for being a public nuisance, causing disturbance to a Toon Detective in the middle of solving a case, and most of all, attempting to assault these nice young ladies scared straight because of your ugly face!"

"RAAAAA!!!!!" Archnemon shot cobweb balls at Eddie, who leaped aside to avoid them. But he had to look sharper when Archnemon was planning her second move. She jumped on top of him and tried to stomp on him with her legs. Eddie, however, quickly rolled and slid past her attacks and got himself out of the mess. "Grrr!!!! Hold still, you smelly human!" She chased the detective up to a corner where the fire exit was located. But there was also small fire extinguisher box attached to the wall there, and Eddie wasn't blind to see it. "I eat humans like you for breakfast!"

"Then, open wide!" Eddie smashed the box and took out the fire extinguisher, spraying it directly into Archnemon's face. "Have a taste of this, chum!"

"AAARGH!!!!" Archnemon shut her eyes as she became blinded temporarily. Eddie made this opportunity to escape and went over to Angewomon to see how she was doing.

"You okay, buddy?" He asked, helping Angewomon get onto her feet. "We got to get you and Hikari out of here now, or this place is gonna beat the hell out of us!"

When Angewomon was had enough energy to walk again, she followed Eddie towards Hikari. She took her by the hand and led her out of the changing room immediately, leaving Catherine, Archnemon and the scared stricken women behind.

…

"Hold it right there!" A mummified Digimon pointed his heavy guns at the three, emerging out from the Women's Changing room. "Leaving so soon?"

Mummymon wasn't alone: he had ten guards around him, all pointing pistols at the group and ready to fire if they were to make a wrong move. Eddie couldn't find a way out of this; the guards didn't look too kindly on them anyway, with their shady sunglasses and cigarettes hanging from some of their mouths. He had no idea how handy these people were with guns, and he didn't want to find out. As for Angewomon, she wasn't quite at full strength, after having taken some damage from Archnemon. She probably wouldn't survive taking on Mummymon now.

So Eddie gave in by raising his hands. Hikari and Angewomon had no choice either but to do the same.

…

"Well, well, well! What do we have here?" PicoDevimon smiled broadly when his guards dragged in Eddie, Angewomon and Hikari into his office. "Three troublemakers in my own casino…? Tsk! Tsk! Tsk! I'm very surprised to see you, Hikari, backstabbing on me like this!"

"What are you talking about?" Hikari answered back. "It was Archnemon who…"

"Silence! You're talking to the guy who runs this joint!" PiceDevimon broke out, flapping his wings fumingly, sitting on his small chair. "I won't take any of your pitiful reasons!"

Archnemon, Mummymon walked into the room. They were followed by the stranger in black seen earlier, who soundlessly shut the door behind him.

"We've searched everywhere, PicoDevimon." Said Archnemon. "There's no sign of that boy anywhere."

"We checked the bar, we checked the restaurants, we checked the toilets, we checked the changing rooms, we checked the monitor screening rooms, we checked the ventilations shafts…hey, we even checked your bedroom, and we asked the naked ladies there and they said…"

"All right, Mummymon. He gets the picture!" Archnemon whacked her partner on the head with her fist. "We couldn't find him!"

"Find who…?" Eddie joined in on the conversation. "Who are you bozos brains referring to about behind our backs?" He had a weird hunch that he knew the answer…but he wanted to see how open these Digimon would be to him.

"You hear that, guys?" PicoDevimon burst into laughter. "This dumb crackpot doesn't even know who we're talking about! And he calls himself a Toon Detective, what a nincompoop!"

Archnemon, Mummymon and all the guards laughed together with PicoDevimon.

"Yeah!" Mummymon said. "Too bad he couldn't figure out our plans to take care of Takeru!"

That last word went echoing in the room, as everyone stopped laughing. Archnemon rewarded Mummymon with another whack on the head for his foolishness in giving away the name to Eddie.

"Takeru!" Hikari clamored out. "What do you intend to do to him?!"

"Do to him?" PicoDevimon sniggered. "Now why would we want to tell you that?"

While everyone was diverted to PicoDevimon's attention, Eddie was the sole person to spot something flying outside the glass window wall behind PicoDevimon's chair. At such a far distance, it was hard to distinguish what was coming closer and closer to the casino. However, it was heading right for them at an alarmingly high speed. It gave Eddie the chills when he thought that a military missile was coming this way to blast them all to smithereens. But then did he learn that his fear wasn't true, and nobody was aware when Eddie let out a mild smile…seconds before Angemon came crashing through the window, scattering sheds of glass everywhere. And that gave Eddie and Angewomon the advantage to dispatch PicoDevimon's guards as fast as they could.

"Hikari!" Takeru appeared as he slid down Angemon's back.

"Stand back, Takeru!" Angemon ordered when a few of the guards pointed their guns at him. "This might get a little unpleasant for young eyes to see." Takeru jumped out of the way when the guards fired. Angemon reacted swiftly by swinging his staff, bouncing away all the bullets that could have inflicted him. Angewomon then tagged in and took out the guards from behind, picking up them up and tossing them over PicoDevimon's desk. PicoDevimon, in the meantime, was desperately searching his papers and his drawers for something he needed at times like these.

"Mr. Valiant, behind you!" Hikari pointed out when she saw a guard sneaking up behind Eddie's back, ready to smash him on the head with the champagne bottle he held in his hands. Eddie was too busy with the guard in front of him, and couldn't hear Hikari's warning. Though, Eddie bobbed down when his opponent swung his fist, and as a result, the guard behind him smashed his bottle against the other guard, making him fall to the floor. Eddie wanted to congratulate him for doing him a favor, and he expressed his gratitude by jabbing him in the face.

PicoDevimon finally found what he was looking for; he opened his lowest drawer and dragged out a wooden case. Clicking the locks and opening it up, he picked up a heavy silver Magnum inside and loaded the bullets that were provided with it. "Heh, heh, heh!"

"Get them, Mummymon!" Archnemon roared at him, making so much effort to hit Angemon and Angewomon with his machine guns. But to no avail, his eyes weren't that sharp enough to make a direct hit on them. "You blind bat! Take 'em down now!" Archnemon whacked him on the head for the third time. And that gave Angemon and Angewomon time to fly down on the two Digimon and uppercut them in the jaw. Archnemon and Mummymon went falling backwards, landing onto PicoDevimon's desk and smashing it into half.

"YOU CAN STOP RIGHT THERE, FOLKS!" PicoDevimon's voice spurted out, and the fight came to an abrupt standstill. "I'm impressed with that daredevil stunt back there, but that hasn't changed anything as far as I'm concerned." All eyes found him flapping beside the broken window, cocking his gun point-blank at Hikari's head. "You come with us now, Takeru, or else your little bird of paradise here will have her feathers blown away!"

"Let her go!" Takeru demanded. Angemon, Angewomon and Eddie came to his side to support him while PicoDevimon's cronies regained their strengths and watched their boss do his business.

"Looks like the tables have turned on you, Takeru. HA! HA! HA!" PicoDevimon nudged Hikari's head with his gun. "Your worthless rescue attempt there conspicuously failed…you oughtta rehearse that sequence more often, I'll tell ya! Hoo! Hoo!"

"I SAID LET HER GO!"

"No chance, kiddo!" PicoDevimon growled. "Either you surrender right now, or Miss Yagami here is gonna get it!"

However, before events were going to get more intense, somebody came knocking thunderously at the door.

Everyone looked startled. "Someone go see who it is!" PicoDevimon said, gritting his teeth stressfully. But no one went over to open the door, because just then, a fist smashed through the wood…all jumped back in dismay. The door was violently kicked down the next second, and in stepped Rinchei Lee, Jaarin Lee, Jenrya Lee and Shuichon Lee. Then there came last but not least, Catherine.

"It's the Lees!" Hikari cried cheerfully, wishing she could rejoice this minute.

"THE LEES!" PicoDevimon screeched.

"The Lees?" Eddie asked confusingly.

"THE LEES!" Angewomon, Angemon and Takeru told him.

"AAAKKK!!!!" Archnemon stepped back. "Curse those Lee children!"

"Dear God! Not them!" Mummymon shivered, embracing Archnemon. "I hate those four…they give me horrible nightmares whenever I'm asleep!"

"Oh, no!" One of the guards bellowed. "How did they figure out what we were up to?!"

"Oh, you can take zat from moi!" Catherine intervened. "After zee attack from Arachnemon and hearing zat you people took away Hikari, I had an intuition zat something clearly waz not right. So I telephoned zee Lees to come and sort zings out over here…and what do I find? My own boss pointing a Magnum gun against my dearest friend…! And you know what zey say on zat that television program on Toei whenever zere is trouble brewing…if zere is something strange in zee neighborhood, who are you going to call…? ZEE LEES!"

"We thought you'd be up to no good sooner or later, PicoDevimon." Rinchei remarked. "We train five long hours non-stop each day at the Tokyo Training School for the traditional Chinese Martial Arts!"

"So now…" Jaarin positioned herself into a Chinese stance.

"…we're going to…" Jenrya did the same and continued the sentence.

"…kick your…"

…

_"AAAAAH!!!!!"__ Mummymon screamed out like a baby when he heard Shuichon finish the sentence to them. "Did you hear that, Archnemon? That ungrateful little girl just said the 'A' word in front us! She can't do that…this is a PG rated movie!"_

_"It's normal to have swearing come in a PG rated movie, you numb nuts!" Archnemon shouted in his ear. "Why the hell do you think the parents need to watch with their kids when they're watching this film…so that they can go potty train them at the same time?"_

_"Really…? I didn't know that."_

_"Mummymon…" Archnemon murmured. "I really think you should go out more often…you're worrying me, seriously…let's just get back to the movie, okay?"_

_"Sure."_

…

"You Lees are too late!" PicoDevimon said. "I still got Hikari by my side, and if any of you take one step closer, I swear that I'll pull this trigger!"

"Oh, no?" Catherine raised her brow and headed towards the Master Switch on the wall near the doorway. She fondled cheekily with the switch, and it made PicoDevimon become nervous.

"No…you wouldn't dare!" He shook his head, his body tingling all over.

Catherine nodded and flicked the switch, making all the lights fade to total darkness…and the room became a black-out.

Then all havoc ensued.

"GET HER!"

"HEEEEYAAAAAAAA!!!!!!"

"WODOOOOO!!!!!!!"

"WATCH OUT!"

"OUCH!"

"OOF!"

"ACK!"

"EEEK!!!!"

"I'VE GOT YOUR TEETH!"

"COME BACK HERE WITH MY TEETH!"

"AH! MY FOOT!"

"YADAAAAAA!!!!!!"

"DON'T LET 'EM GET AWAY!"

"AIIIEEEEE!!!!!! MERCY!!!!!!"

"ROUNDHOUSE KICK!"

"UGGHHHH!!!!"

"I'M GONNA BREAK YOUR LEG!"

"YEOOWWWCH! THAT'S MINE, MUMMYMON!"

"OOPS! SORRY, ARCHNEMON!"

"BOFF!"

"BAFF!"

"WOOOOOO-KATOOOAAAAAA!!!!!!!"

"I'VE GOT YOUR HEAD, HIKARI!"

"GET YOUR MISERABLE HANDS OFF OF ME, YOU DAMN DIRTY DETECTIVE!"

"PICODEVIMON?!"

"MR. VALIANT! I'M OVER HERE WITH TAKERU, HURRY!"

"ERRR!!!!!!'

"AAAAAARRGHHH!!!!!!!!"

"HEE!"

"HAE!"

"HO!"

"OUCH! THAT'S ME, ANGEMON!"

"SORRY, TAKERU!"

"YAAA!!!! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE POINTING THOSE ARROWS, ANGEWOMON!"

"MY MISTAKE, TAKERU!"

"KEEEEEEYAAAAA!!!!!"

"D'OOOOH!!!!!"

"D'OW!!!!!"

"HEY, YOUR ZIPPER IS OPEN!"

"REALLY?!"

"NO, TAKE THIS…HEEYA!!!!"

"BRAAAK!!!!! NO FAIR!!!!!"

"MOTHER!"

"UHNNN!!!!!!"

"TAKE ZIS, YOU OVERGROWN POISSON!"

"WOOOOOOOOOF!!!!! RIGHT IN THE…AHHH…"

Catherine switched the lights back on when all went quiet.

In no less than twenty seconds in darkness, the whole room had been transformed into a pig sty. Books were ripped and torn apart everywhere, wine and champagne glasses were broken, bottles were smashed, the furniture was toppled sideways or upside-down, and on the floor was Archnemon, Mummymon, PicoDevimon and all of his men lying unconscious and out cold from their short-lived battle. Standing among them were Eddie, Hikari, Takeru, Angemon, Angewomon, the Lees and of course Catherine.

"Well…that was a cinch." Jenrya spoke out first, clapping his hands together. "But I was expecting more of a challenge back there…I personally could have taken them all out in ten seconds flat!"

"Yeah, right!" Jaarin came over to him and yanked his ear. "I'd love to see you try, Mr. Perfect…I had to save your big butt out there from Arachnemon and Mummymon when you were seconds away from becoming mince meat!"

"Hey! What about me?" Shuichon whined. "I was the one who took care of that ball shaped Digimon!"

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Rinchei intruded. "Let's all think realistically, guys. You all know that I was the one that took out all of those guards, including Arachnemon and Mummymon. So correction there, Jaarin, I was the person that punched their lights out!"

Eddie and the others watched in amusement as the Lees continued to argue among each other. But none of them made any alertness to the stranger in black hiding behind a torn up sofa…slowly, he crept up against the wall, and carefully sneaked his way towards the open doorway to make his smart getaway. Yet…

BRRIIING!!!! BRRIIING!!!!

The ringing on the stranger's cell phone attracted everyone's ears, and he was discovered immediately.

"Stop zat man!" Catherine shouted.

The stranger took to his feet at that instant and rushed to the doorway…but he was not successful. Eddie took him down in one tackle and pulled him down to the floor with ease.

"Mmmmphph!" The stranger struggled to get free, moaning within the mask he wore. Eddie turned him around so that his eyes were facing the floor. He took his left arm and locked it behind his back, holding it tight. "Rtt oo oof mi!"

Jenrya was the one who went over to answer the stranger's ringing phone from his pocket.

"Moshi, moshi…?" Jenrya said. "…no sorry, she's not here. This is Jenrya speaking…you sure you have the right number…? Honto…? Are you positive this is her's…? U-huh…hai…okay…right, that does it!" Jenrya hung up the phone impolitely without saying goodbye and strode angrily towards the stranger. "Who are you? And what have you done with our friend?"

"Mmmphphph?" The stranger sounded like he had no idea what the boy was talking about.

"Don't play dumb with us, buster! I know you've got her somewhere!" Jenrya waved the phone vigorously in his hand. "This is her personal cell phone for crying out loud, and you took it away from her!"

"Is that so…? Well, I guess it's time to see who this lame brain is!" Eddie reached his hand over the ski mask and gradually slipped it off, to unveil his true face. "What the…? You…? What in Sam Hill are you doing here?"

"Let go of me!" The stranger burst out.

"No…no…" Hikari covered her mouth in shear shock. "No…!"

"It doesn't make any sense…" Takeru removed his hat and looked somberly down at the stranger.

It was impossible for Eddie to believe, and so was it for Takeru, Hikari, Angewomon and Angemon. The Lees felt most alarmed to see who the stranger was also…well, except for Jenrya: the stubborn boy wasn't quite convinced by what his eyes were telling him.

"Wait!" Jenrya came forward and bent down to the stranger. "Don't let appearances deceive you…this is obviously a mask! I've seen this all the time on that cartoon show with the talking dog!"

Jenrya took the stranger's nose with his fingers and tried to rip it off by pulling extremely hard on it.

"OOOOW!!!!!" The stranger cried in pain. "Stop it, Jenrya! Let go! It's me…IT'S REALLY ME!"

"Oh, gomen…" Jenrya let go grinning innocently and stepped away. "It really is you."

And it was no lie; the stranger was in fact none other than Sora Takenouchi.

…

**(1) Anybody who's actually seen 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' should remember this character.**

_Author's Notes: I'm a bit disappointed that I only received a few reviews on my last chapter…please keep reviewing guys, you're the only ones that keep this fanfic alive! (Well, kind of)._


	9. The Enemy's Trail

_**Digital Monsters: Back In Action**_

_**By Charles Xavier**_

…

**The Enemy's Trail**

"Sora?" Hikari couldn't believe that one of her best friends was working against them. It was quite impossible to believe that Sora Takenouchi would be siding with whatever force PicoDevimon was behind also. "Sora…? Is it really you?"

But Sora did not answer. She ignored Hikari's question and stared blankly at the floor, panting as Eddie remained holding her arm locked behind her back. Takeru and Hikari stepped in closer to her and everybody else stood from their posts. Angemon and Angewomon morphed back into Patamon and Tailmon and went with their partners to inspect Sora too.

"All right. Up on your feet now!" Eddie took no pity for criminals he caught when dealing with a case. And for Eddie, Sora was one of them. He dragged Sora up and hurled her instantly to the wall, securing his grip on her arm. "To be honest, I don't know how you managed to talk your way out of the cops. But you're NOT going to talk your out of this one, Miss Sora Takenouchi!"

"Ow! You're hurting my arm!" Sora yelled, feeling the pain sharpen.

"Yeah, and I'll break it if you don't do as I say."

"Mr. Valiant, please!" Hikari interfered, asking him kindly not to hurt her friend. "There has to be some sort of mistake here."

"I don't see any mistakes here, Hikari. This is Sora Takenouchi okay, in the flesh. And I can see she's been cooking up something with PicoDevimon and his other idiots!"

"No! CHIGAIMASU!" Putting herself in denial did not help Hikari. She didn't want to believe this was happening. She even tried to turn away from this disturbing sight. But then, she looked back when Sora spoke:

"Gomen, Hikari and Takeru. Forgive me for what I have done." She said apologetically. "So much has happened for me ever since this whole thing started…I truly didn't mean to cause any of this, but I had no choice. 'They' forced me into doing this all."

"Who?" Takeru asked.

"…AAA!"

Eddie twisted Sora's arm to an extent it nearly made her scream. "The kid just asked you a question. And you're supposed to answer him back." Eddie wasn't being soft on Sora. She hadn't told him or the Lieutenant anything about her secret involvements, but she had a good reason why.

"Mr. Valiant! Please don't hurt her!" Hikari begged him not to do any further harm.

Eddie slightly relaxed and let Sora speak.

"Acme…" She said with sorrow. "Acme's been making me work them…and I'm the one who's responsible for Mr. Yamazaki's death."

All went speechless.

"I left Yamato's house early so I could find Mr. Yamazaki at Toei before he'd return home. I found him and told him that there was an accident in one of his studios…that was how I brought him into the warehouse, where he got the drop. I didn't mean to get him killed, honestly! But they pushed me into it; there was nothing I could do to resist."

"Thanks for sharing that with us, Miss Takenouchi." Eddie said in a calm voice. "But would you be so kind, dear, in telling us the reason WHY you set us up into this? And WHY the hell you're committing yourself into everything those Acme jerks are tellin' you to do!"

"I can't tell you…" Sora shook her head.

"Then spill it out!"

"AAAAAIIIII!" Sora screamed when Eddie began twisting her arm again, but even further. The pain became more unbearable that Sora started to cry. It was there when she realized that she had to spill the beans on him, even if she was going to accept the fatal consequences. "The Chairman…! The Chairman of Acme's kidnapped my father…! He's taken him in and threatens to kill him unless I follow his instructions! He wants my father to help him build a secret weapon for the company, but they didn't tell me what it was for."

"Secret weapon?" Takeru exclaimed. "What secret weapon?"

"Please! No more!" Sora cried. "If I tell you what it is, I'm afraid Acme will…AAAA!"

When Hikari heard Sora scream again, she thought Eddie was hurting her arm again. But then she saw something sticking out of Sora's waist: a blue feather dart. It must have been shot behind her back where nobody else was looking. Turning her head back at the open doorway, Takeru was the first person to catch sight of a long black barrel of a gun poking out. 'OVER THERE!" He shouted. But the barrel pulled away and disappeared. When all turned back to Sora, she had thumped down onto the floor, sleeping like a baby.

"It's a tranquilizer dart!" Eddie knelt down and pulled the object out of Sora's waist. "The poor girl's fast asleep now…we can't wake her up."

Catherine knelt down beside Sora and checked her pulse reading. "She iz alive, mon Dieu! But I am afraid zee real criminal iz getting away at ziz moment we speak! We have to catch him quick!"

The Lees were brave enough to venture out to the doorway to see if there had been any trails left behind. Fortunately, there was one.

"Aha!" Jenrya picked up what he had found outside and came back into the room to show everyone. "A tranquilizer gun! That could only mean one thing: Sora has been tranquilized!"

Jenrya smiled at himself proudly, unaware that all the people around him already knew that Sora was tranquilized minutes ago.

"Yes, Jenrya. I'm glad you finally realized that." Jaarin slipped the heavy handled weapon away from his hands and inspected it. "Hmmm, I've never seen this brand before…Acme Tranquilizer Rifle."

"It's an agent from Acme!" Takeru burst out. "C'mon! We got to find that creep before he gets away!"

"One problem, Takeru." Hikari grabbed her friend by the collar before he could walk away out of the room. "That guy could be hitting the road by about now. How do you think we can catch him at this rate?"

"I believe I can answer that." Rinchei replied, pointing to the doorway boldly. "Everybody…TO THE LEE MOBILE!"

"To the Lee Mobile!" The Lees chorused together, dashing out of the room like a band of super heroes. Eddie, Takeru, Hikari and the Digimon were obliged to follow them, but they had to settle out one small problem first.

"Catherine, stay here and take care of Sora." Hikari asked her. "Call the ambulance and the police force and tell them what's happened here! Takeru and I are going off with the Lees!"

"Of course." Catherine nodded. "Anything for my dear friend, you know?"

"And if they ask about Takeru, tell them that he's innocent…and we're going to prove it!"

"Definitivement, Hikari. You can count on me…au revoir!"

…

_NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN! NAN_

_THE LEES!_

…

While a musical tune reminiscent to the Batman theme filled the atmosphere, a black Countach Lamborghini (or so called the Lee Mobile) roared on the streets outside of Casino PicoDevimon. Inside it, sat the Lees, Eddie, Hikari, Takeru and the Digimon all buckled up with their seat belts. It was surprising to see a Countach that was large enough to fit in all nine of them in quite comfortably, as cars like these were known only to fit in two. But this was Japan…a country far more developed than the rest of the world.

"There he goes!" Jenrya pointed out at a black Bronco van driving out of a parking lot in front of them at incredible speed. "Floor it, Rinchei!"

Rinchei stepped on the pedal away they went, in pursuit of their enemy rushing past other cars and crossing traffic lights feverishly. The Countach drove unimaginably fast that it made Eddie, Takeru, Hikari and the Digimon fling their heads back to their seats, unable to move. As for the Lees, they were used to driving at this speed all the time; even though they occasionally got pulled over by police whenever they were late to school.

…

The chase took them all the way to the highway bridge, where the enemy was getting a little trickier with them. Thankfully Rinchei never failed to lose him. He was a fast learner and a top notch driver among his family. Even his father complained at times that he drove too fast on the driving wheel.

"I believe we haven't been properly introduced yet." Takeru greeted the human sitting next to him. "The name's Takeru Takaishi, and this is my Digimon friend Patamon. Hajime mashite!" Takeru and Patamon took him by the hand and bowed.

"Sure, pal. Er…doozo yorishiku, or something." Eddie shook his hand casually. "The name's Detective Eddie Valaint." He took out his badge and showed it to Takeru and Patamon. "I'm part of the reason why you're in this whole mess, and I'm here to get you out of it."

He looked over to Hikari and winked at her.

"He's right, Takeru." Hikari said. "We're going find whoever did this to you and get you out of this jam."

Takeru was amazed to see how enthusiastic Hikari was in helping him out. He wished now she could have been this caring to him back when he was working in Toei Animation. "Hikari, arigatou. Thank you all."

While Eddie and Takeru were familiarizing with each other, Shuichon Lee was the only person in the car getting bored. She couldn't do much after all but watch Jaarin and Jenrya shout at Rinchei directions he should go…she felt she needed some entertainment to lighten up the mood.

"Hey, why don't we listen to some music?" She said, reaching her arm out for the radio button.

"Shuichon, how could you think of music at a time like this?" Jaarin asked.

But Shuichon didn't hear her.

…

"_All right!_ _You're listening to the DH-1 Radio Mix at nine o'clock_ _in the evening, with me Mr. Fujiyama! And on our all hit request line, I have Mr. Yukio Oikawa on the phone. So, buddy, what would you like to hear?"_

"_I'd like to hear 'Gothic Girl' by Alice McCoy, please!"_

"_No problem, 'Gothic Girl' it is! And is there anybody in particular you would like to dedicate this song to?"_

"_Just play my damn song, you fruitcake!"_

"_Hiya, Alice!"_

"_Hi, Steve!"_

"_Wanna go for a ride?"_

"_Sure thing!"_

"_Then, jump in!"_

…

'_I'm a Gothic Girl,_

_In a Gothic world._

_Dressed in black,_

_What's wrong with that?_

_Blonde boys everywhere,_

_I give them quite a scare!_

_I'm a creation_

_From Toei Animation!'_

…

'_You're so gothic,_

_And so lovely!'_

…

"OOH! This is my favorite song!" Shuichon laughed and clapped her hands with delight. While she was grooving to the song, Jaarin and Jenrya covered their ears. Rinchei wished he could do the same, but he was busy keeping his eyes on the road.

…

The trail had gone cold. The Lees had been searching the streets of Tokyo for at least an hour now. They went block to block trying to hunt down the Bronco van after it had craftily lost them through the busy highway.

"This is not good." Rinchei was getting rather tired driving endlessly along the empty road. Everywhere he looked there was no sign of their man. It was if he vanished into thin air like a ghost would. "We're not getting anywhere here, guys."

Until…

"Soo desu ne? Then what do you call that, Rinchei?" Jenrya pointed out again in the road's distance. As they got closer to what Jenrya had spotted, they saw that it was by luck the Bronco van they had been seeking. However, it seemed that its door was left open and the driver inside had escaped. Rinchei stopped the car and everyone stepped out.

"Speak of the devil." Takeru said, leading Hikari and their Digimon further ahead the abandoned vehicle to find a sewer drop that had been left open. "He's gone underground!"

After Eddie and the Lees checked inside the van for any possible clues, they came over to Takeru and the others to check what they had uncovered.

"Whew!" Jenrya looked down into the empty black hole. "It's pretty dark down there…I don't know about you guys, but this is kind of giving me the creeps! And there's no way I'm going to go into that spooky darkness!"

"Well, congratulations. You ain't going down there anyways!" Eddie said, grabbing onto the ladder. "I'm the one going down…and Hikari and Takeru are coming with me. And while we're at it, I want you Lee kids to go back and get the cops here, fast! You understand?"

"But, what if you get into any danger?"

"Never mind him, Jenrya!" Rinchei told his little brother off. "The detective knows what he's doing…besides, we saved him once already. Let's just do what he says and get some help."

"Hang on, wait a second!" But they didn't. The Lees returned to their Countach, with Jaarin pulling the rebellious Jenrya by the shirt back with them. "I wanted to do some of that kung-fu fighting like we did back in the casino…that was fun! What if Eddie gets outnumbered by some alligators in the sewers?"

"Alligators don't live in the sewers." Rinchei opened the door and the Lees jumped back inside. "You've been watching far too many cartoons, Henry. I think you should give your TV addiction a little bit of a break."

The Lees buckled themselves up in the car, and waved goodbye at the detective and their friends…apart from Jenrya, who was looking very grumpy at his older brother.

"By the way, Rinchei one thing: my name is not Henry…IT'S JENRYA!"

…

"OW!"

"Gomen, Hikari."

Takeru whispered to her, after having stepped on her foot for the third time. Navigating deeper and deeper into the sewers wasn't an easy task. None of them had flashlights, and the only light emitting from this dark labyrinth was the cigarette lighter Eddie held in his hand to guide them through the place. Tailmon and Patamon stuck together, a little frightened with the eeriness of the sewers. Takeru and Hikari, though they weren't fully aware of it, held hands together as they walked through the tunnels, following right behind the detective's tail…

"Takeru, I'm scared." Hikari's hand began to tremble. Takeru squeezed her hand to ensure that nothing was going to hurt her if something was to jump out of nowhere. "I think I heard footsteps back there."

"Where?"

"Behind us. I think I heard noises coming from behind Patamon and Tailmon."

Takeru looked back and could see nobody…his naked eye couldn't fully tell if anything was lurking about in the shadows. And Takeru could hear nothing either…or maybe whatever was following them had simply stopped and remained silent.

Takeru looked down upon the Digimon, they didn't appear as nervous as Hikari.

"Did any of you two hear weird noises behind us?" He asked them.

Patamon and Tailmon shrugged and shook their heads.

"Hmmm." Takeru turned back to Hikari and tried to settle her down. "Hikari, I think you ought to calm down a bit…you've got nothing to be afraid of. There's nothing following us. As long as just keep up with me, I'm sure nothing will go wrong, okay?"

How wrong he was, because Hikari suddenly spotted unknown hands grappling onto Patamon's and Tailmon's mouths from behind their backs. While the Digimon struggled to get free, they were pulled back into the darkness. And before Hikari could shout about what she had just witnessed, she too had her mouth sealed by other hands, which slithered around behind her head soundlessly. Takeru reacted quickly and grabbed Hikari to save her from whoever was pulling her back, but he too was taken by other sets of hands that strongly restrained him back. Soon they all disappeared from Eddie's light.

"What the hell was that?" Eddie heard some loud shuffling in his ears. He spun back to find that Takeru, Hikari and their Digimon were gone. "Takeru…! Hikari…! Where did you guys go?"

His reply never came…he only felt something club him on the head, knocking him out in a split second flat.

…

_Author's Note: Thank you for the reviews again! _

_BTW: Can anyone guess what song I was parodying in this chapter with Alice?_


	10. Settling The Score

**_Digital Monsters: Back In Action_**

****

**_By Charles Xavier_**

…

**Settling The Score**

"Wakey, wakey, Mr. Valiant."

"Uh…"

Opening his weary eyes, Eddie met eye to eye with a person whom he least expected it to be.

"Doom…?"

Returning him his freaky grin, he was greatly pleased to see the Toon Detective alive with him at last. It had been a while ago since their last encounter; three years to be exact.

"My, oh my. How you have changed." Doom lifted up his hat to take a good glance at his friend. "I can see you've lost quite a bit of weight recently…been on a diet, Detective? Or maybe have you been cutting down on the booze lately?" He teased him in an ill-mannered way. Eddie had the urge to raise his arms and grapple Doom by his neck…the only problem was that his body was entirely mummified in locks and chains, making him absolutely motionless. "You like my design you're wearing? It's completely escape proof. Not even a toon like myself could possibly break loose out of those."

"Where are we?"

"Where are we? Dear boy, we are standing hundreds of feet beneath the hearts of Tokyo city itself." Doom stepped out of Eddie's sight to let him behold Acme's largest underground headquarters. With its ceiling nearly as high as the sky itself, Eddie was surprised to see Acme soldiers patrolling everywhere, and the most extraordinary computer software functioning sufficiently on the metallic walls covering the whole area. "This is the new Acme Underground Lair…the most sophisticated and most expensive of all of Acme's bases around the globe! Why, it makes Walt Disney look like a kiddy's playground for three year olds compared to what we have in stock here…or should I say what we will have in stock here. And may I inform you that you're positioned directly at the very center of our wonderful base. So consider this your lucky day."

"What have you done with Takeru and Hikari?"

"Oh, you mean the children? Don't fret…they're right over there, playing by the pool." Doom nudged his head behind Eddie. "You care to see them?" He took out a small remote control from his pocket and pressed a button that made the moving platform under Eddie spin around. Eddie feasted his eyes on the other side of Acme's complex base. But most alarmingly, he found Takeru, Hikari and their Digimon, all tied together on a rope hanging by the hook of a giant crane. And below their feet, there sat a fat tub of hot steaming DIP, large enough for all of them to dive right into if they were to be dropped.

"Mr. Valiant!" Takeru and Hikari both called out at once. "Help us!"

"A beautiful sight, is it not?" Doom said chuckling to himself. "But if you disagree, then I dare need to say that isn't all I have in store for you."

He pressed another button on his remote. A rectangular platform in front of the tub of DIP dropped down. Moments later, it rose back up again, and standing on it was a monstrous, titanic truck machine. It appeared equipped with an assorted arsenal of squirt cannons, fully loaded with DIP that ran through solid transparent pipes circulating around the vehicle. It like was history repeating itself for Eddie, but only far worse. He saw that this machine was definitely made to be built far superior to the one Doom concocted three years ago.

"How do you like this? I call this the TOON-INATOR 3000: my greatest invention yet devised!"

"You haven't changed a cent, Doom. Have you?" Eddie sighed at him with shame. "I pity you sometimes. And I should know because I've worked with toons like you for years. And behind that rubber mask of yours, I know you're still that crazy whacked up toon who should really ought to get a life."

"SILENCE!" Eddie had seriously got Doom on his nerve there. "Who are you to judge me on what I should do? I'm just lucky to be alive again, and I'm happy that I'm here to finally have my vengeance on you, Mr. Valiant, after what you took from me and my dreams."

"Your dreams…? Hah, those freeway ideas you came up with last time are still miles halfway out of space to me! And that reminds me…just exactly who was the gargoyle who brought you back here anyway?"

"That gargoyle you so refer to would be me."

His voice uttered from Eddie's back. Mr. Chairman walked around and confronted him malevolently.

"It's so nice to make your acquaintance, Detective Valiant." He raised his brows at him and lowered down his glasses to see him clearly. "Doom here has missed you so much, and has been dying to see you. We, at Acme, at first didn't expect you to mingle into our plans when we decided to…"

"Kill Mr. Yamazaki?"

"Well, well! Aren't you a clever clog? Hoo, hoo, hoo…but let's not jump to conclusions yet." Mr. Chairman looked over to Judge Doom and both of them chuckled. "Detective, do you know the reason why we are all here, and do you have any idea why your helpless friends are hanging over there by the DIP? Hoo, hoo, hoo. I was surely hoping you'd figure it out by now that I, the Chairman of Acme, intend to have Toei Animation handed over to me."

Takeru, Hikari and the Digimon were listening carefully to what Mr. Chairman was saying. And it was with guarantee that they heard something about Toei Animation being run by him. They all gasped at one another with utmost terror.

"Toei Animation?" Eddie frowned with confusion. "Why the hell do you want Toei Animation?"

"Oh, I don't think you quite understand…you see, I feel that Japanese cartoons, or anime if you prefer to call them, have a great sense of uniqueness. They are adored by people across the nation, they are highly complexly drawn in every way and most intriguingly, they have human emotions like we do. They live like us, they eat like us, they talk like us…why, you could say they're almost like us: a mirror image of us all. But no matter how flawless their appearances and behavior may seem, I detect that a majority of them still lack something very dear. And do you know what that is…? LUNACY!"

"I think HE'S the loony one in this bin." Takeru mumbled to Hikari.

"Rarely have I watched anime that have fully made me laughing off of my chair! You don't get to see much funny business happening often in animes, Detective, compared to what you see over at Hollywood. We people at Acme believe in entertaining the world only through humor, slapstick, jocularity and comedy. And I strongly sense that's exactly what Toei Animation needs! The same goes to the rest of those anime corporations out there! If they can't do things right…then I'm afraid I'll have to do it for them! And if people don't cooperate with me, then I guess it spells bad news for them…"

"So that's why I suppose you killed Hayao Yamazaki, for Toei Animation?"

"Of course! That stubborn old reptile wouldn't hand over his life's work, so I was more than happy to sort him out with a grand piano. And with a touch of help from our sweet Sora Takenouchi, it was a cinch to pull off. My, oh my…that poor girl. It's a pity Doom had to pull the trigger and take her off to la-la dreamland so soon. She was such of great use to us…but by the time she wakes up from her beauty nap, Toei Animation will officially belong to me. And now that I have Takeru Takaishi, I'll make sure that all the anime will be put under marshal law. Then when I turn him, his friends and you in to the police by tomorrow evening, I'll get all the credit. And YOU will be all locked behind bars and stripped of your post…for good! AH! HA! HA! HA! HA! HAAAAAA!!!!!!!"

"Okay, that last laugh just didn't fit right with me." Takeru commented. "That was kind of disturbing."

"You're beyond wackier than Doom is…I don't know who on Earth made you the Chairman of Acme. But for your information, bud, that Mr. Yamazaki you murdered just so happened to have a son. And once he finds out what you're up to…"

"Oh, Detective." Mr. Chairman interrupted him. "I think you better hold your tongue for one minute, because here come a couple of my special guest stars!" He and Doom stood to one side as five soldiers came marching by, holding with them a timid Japanese man wearing glasses that looked a tad too big for him, and then there an adult male anime next to him. The soldiers threw both of them over forwards so that Eddie could identify who they were. "Ah, here's that no good son of a ham bag: Nanahara Yamazaki. So far he has refused to sign in on our contract to give Toei Animation in to me. But don't worry. I'll consider his decision later." He took out a paper scroll from his pockets and revealed it to Eddie. The contract was real, all right. It clearly declared that Nanahara Yamazki would sell Toei Animation and all its belongings (i.e. anime) to the Acme Corporation. The only thing missing on it was Nanahara's signature at the bottom of the page, which would have sealed the deal between him and Mr. Chairman. Putting those issues aside, however, Mr. Chairman brought his attention on the anime. "And can you guess who this anime is with him?"

"Mr. Takenouchi, I presume."

"Gong! Gong! Gong! Gong! Gong!" Mr. Chairman randomly picked up a golden gong and struck it fiercely. "That's the correct answer! Hoo, hoo, hoo…say, you're not half bad for a Toon Detective."

"Where's my daughter?" Professor Haruhiko Takenouchi demanded to know. "What despicable act have you done with her now, Mr. Chairman?"

"Oh, she's fine, I assure you. By now she's dozing off safely in hospital fast asleep. You need not worry about her any longer, Professor. I have no further interest in her." Mr. Chairman gazed over at Doom's machine. "So, how is everything going with our TOON-INATOR 3000?"

"Theoretically, it should be a hundred percent running this time, sir."

"It better be." Mr. Chairman said scornfully. "If we're going to build the perfect freeways in Hollywood, Professor, we're going to have to build them properly and accurately. I don't care if we have to wipe out Toon Town and those worthless toons. Why should I worry about them when in a few years time all of the anime will belong into the palms of my hands! After I take Toei, I'm going to move on and dominate the rest of Japan, bringing in my reign of absolute hilarity into anime shows! AH! HA! HA! HA! HA! HAAAAA!!!!!"

Eddie could understand that Mr. Chairman wasn't just beyond wacky…he was way off his head.

"Um, would you mind not laughing like that?" Takeru generously asked Mr. Chairman up above. "You're giving us all the willies up here!"

"As you see Mr. Valiant, after the Chairman and I take over Toei Animation, I'll be busy off taking my little DIP machine back to Hollywood. And I'll be able to afford tearing down Toon Town and making way for my wonderful, irresistible freeways!" Doom could see it in his eyes…the mass population of toons drowning in waves of boiling DIP. Their cries filling the air, that would only be muffled by the sounds of noisy construction vehicles and working men. Oh bliss…it would be pure Heaven for Judge Doom. "Can you imagine it? It would be spectacular!"

_(Sure…in his dreams.)_ Eddie thought.

"Laugh all you want, Chairman!" Nanahara burst out in anger. "But for the sake of people and anime alike, I will NEVER surrender Toei over to filthy minds such as yours!"

"Huh. Is that so?" Mr. Chairman presented a sinful smile across his face. "Very well, then!" He turned back and signaled at the crane operator sitting inside the crane. "Let 'em have the DIP!" He delivered a thumb down at the operator, who nodded his head and pushed the lever on the control panel. "AH! HA! HA! HA! HA! HAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!"

"I told you to cut it out with scary laugh!" Takeru complained. "Sheesh, someone needs professional help around here."

"CHOTTO MATTE!" Hikari squealed in a raucous voice. Mr. Chairman ordered to stop the crane. "You've still left some questions unanswered! Just exactly how were you able to pull off such a dirty trick in framing Takeru after all this?! And what do you have against him?"

"Sweet child." Mr. Chairman called up to her. "After we learned that your friend Takeru was tragically thrown out of Toei Animation, it seemed too much of a coincidence for us that we were planning to murder Mr. Yamazaki at the same time. So there was nothing we had against the boy. He was merely the perfect subject to our scheme, and the perfect suspect of our crime." He slipped a hand into his pocket and took out a familiar looking rock. "Recognize this, Takeru?"

"Hey…" Takeru stared down at it closely. "…isn't that the rock I tossed on the sign of Toei Animation?"

"The same…and thanks to PicoDevimon's help, we managed to find this tiny fragile object by Toei's gates and retrieve your fingerprints from it! And…well, I'm sure you can guess what came after that. After all, didn't Archnemon show you those fingerprint papers back in court?"

"No wonder!" Eddie could feel the puzzle slowly piecing in together. "That's how Takeru's fingerprints matched the ones found on that rope! After Doom dealt with Mr. Yamazaki, you fat heads copied his fingerprints on the rope to cover up the real evidence and make Takeru look like he dropped it!"

"Aren't we getting somewhere, Detective?" Mr. Chairman teased him with disrespect. "You're taking the words right out of my mouth. Hoo, hoo, hoo. Is there anything else you'd like to share with us at this time, Mr. Smarty Pants?"

"Yeah. That hat found in the piano could have only been a phony! I bet you guys talked Sora into making another hat that was a splitting image of the one Takeru has. It ain't complicated crap…Sora's an expert costume designer and you knew this all along!"

"Gong! Gong! Gong! Gong! Gong!" Mr. Chairman took up his gong again and struck it louder. "Congratulations, Detective! You've solved your first anime case! You're only one step away from earning a hundred million yen…NOT!"

"…Yep, he's an idiot." Takeru said with confirm.

"A loser." Joined Hikari.

"A screwball." Patamon added.

"A crackpot." Tailmon added too.

"A typical cartoon character!" The four of them finished together.

"LOWER THEM DOWN INTO THE DIP!" Mr. Chairman was growing fed up with the anime and their smart aleck comments. He waved at the crane operator and the operator pushed down the lever again.

"NO!" Eddie, Nanahara and Mr. Takenouchi roared.

"I'm so sorry." Mr. Chairman beamed at Nanahara, waving his handover contract at his face in a mock fashion. "You should have signed the contract when you had the chance! But, NO-OOO! You had to be the goody little two shoes and reject, didn't you? All because your whiny daddy wasn't happy selling his company over to me! Well, now you'll have to face the penalty for being disobedient to the Chairman of Acme!"

While Eddie, Doom, Mr. Chairman, Nanahara and Mr. Takenouchi watched the anime gradually descending downwards to their deaths, Takeru felt guilt written all over his body. He never imagined that his final moment in his life would ever come to such an unjustly one as this, bound up together to die with the girl he _sincerely_ had a crush on: Hikari. The Digimon were important to him too. Without Patamon, he wouldn't have been as famous as he had been in Toei Animation. And come to think of it, Takeru had always had fun working with Hikari and everybody else. Despite his struggles finding a right ending to their second season, there were always moments when Takeru enjoyed being together with them. But now, that was melting away. All because he got a little too delusional with his script, it ultimately resulted in this fine mess.

"I'm sorry, Hikari. I'm sorry for all this." Takeru said mournfully. "It's all my fault. If I hadn't written all those flowery scripts and got kicked out of Toei, we wouldn't have ended up here where we are now."

"No, Takeru. I'm the one who should be sorry." Hikari answered back in tears. "I should have been there to support you all the way back in that conference meeting. I should have stayed there and given you my opinion."

"What would you have rated it…truthfully?"

"10. A perfect 10, Takeru." Takeru started crying when he heard Hikari say that. For once, his work had been fully appreciated by the girl he thought could never have accepted it. What irony it was… "It may not be suitable for how the second season could have ended, but at least I've realized now that's how I wished MY life could have ended…with you."

"Arigatou, Hikari. You're the first person who's ever given credit to my work."

"I'm scared…"

"I'm right here…don't cry…I'll be right here to see it all through with you….I'll be right by your side, because we're going to face this together…you're not alone…you'll never be alone."

Takeru, Hikari and the Digimon could now feel the heat of the DIP under their feet…but they didn't fear; soon it would all be over. Takeru and Hikari were glad that they could die together now, and be happy wherever the soul of an anime would go… Now that was something a mystery worth investigating for them…not even a Toon Detective could solve that problem.

"Goodbye, Takeru!" Patamon cried, holding back his sniffs.

"Sayonara, Hikari!" Tailmon closed eyes her tight, taking one last glance of life before she forced herself not to open them again.

"I LOVE YOU, TAKERU-KUN!"

"I LOVE YOU TOO, HIKARI-CHAN!"

Both hand in hand, they closed their eyes, ready to face death itself unafraid.

"…………"

But just when they thought they were done for…

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A gigantic explosion arose from ceiling above. Rocks and boulders came raining down, smashing and crashing onto soldiers and heavy machinery. Doom, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Takenouchi and Nanahara crouched down for cover, ignoring the dust and pebbles falling onto their backs. Eddie couldn't move a muscle in his status. He raised his head upwards and saw a large gaping hole had been made on the ceiling. And to his phenomenal surprise, out spawned hundreds of Japanese police squads coming down on parachutes or sliding down dropped ropes. Heavily protected with helmets and body armor and armed with state-of-the-art machine guns, they crashed in, eliminating a wide percentage of Acme's soldiers even before they hit the ground. They then spread out rapidly and took positions around the base to take care of the rest of their enemies.

One of the police soldiers dashed towards the crane that was about to fry Takeru and his friends. He flung open the door where inside the crane operator was working in. He snatched him by the shoulders and struggled with him. And while they were moving about senselessly, they managed to knock the lever up on the control panel.

"Huh?"

Takeru, Hikari and the Digimon opened their eyes when they felt that they had suddenly come to an unscheduled stop. It wasn't long after that when they felt their stomachs drop when they were lifted up instantaneously. When they reached their highest point, the crane stopped and the anime tried to recover from this astonishing turn of events.

"Phew! That was a close one, Takeru!" Patamon was deeply relieved. "I saw my life flashing before my eyes!"

"Look, guys!" Tailmon looked out with adrenaline running through her body. "The police forces are here! We're saved!"

Meanwhile, down below…

"WHAT?!" Mr. Chairman's voice boomed as he got up all agitated. "What is going on here? Who's responsible for this sudden outbreak?" He said in panic. But once he discovered who had broken into his humble abode, he couldn't help but freak out. "How in the infernal blazes did the Japanese find out about my Acme base?"

"I forgot to remind you, Chairman!" Eddie laughed joyfully. "We weren't the only ones coming down to visit! With the Lee kids' telling those Japanese cops about our location, you've now got a whole ton of more guests droppin' by to see ya! HA! HA! HAAAA!!!!!!"

"SHUT UP! Nobody laughs at the Chairman of Acme! Stop that laughing now!" But Eddie was in such a cheery mood, he wouldn't stop. And that made Mr. Chairman more cross. "Right, that does it! Doom…take the pleasure in ridding this annoying buffoon right this minute!"

"I'd be delighted." Doom let out his freak grin again. He slipped the glove off his right hand, revealing a long golden shaft with a razor sharp buzz saw at the end of it. "I've waited far too long for this…far too long."

Eddie's smile disappeared.

Back at the crane, the two men at the panel were still fighting. And just when either of them believed he had the advantage, it resulted in one of them accidentally nudging over the lever up or down time after time.

"WHOOOAAAAA-WHAAAAAY-WHEEEEEEEE-AIIIIEEE!!!!!"

The crane's hook kept dropping and lifting, making Takeru and his friends fall and rise constantly at an uncontrollable rate. Not only did this experience bring Takeru back memories when he once went to Disneyland Tokyo years back, but it also made him very…

"I think I'm going to be sick!" Takeru's face turned green and he placed both his hands upon his erupting mouth. Hikari and the others weren't looking too pleased with the situation. "Somebody please stop this thing before I throw up all over!"

Luck came their way, sort of. A massive flying bullet from one of the police's machine guns managed to hit the almost-tearing rope that held the anime together. The rope broke in a split-second and released the anime loose…down to the pool of DIP waiting for them below. By chance, however, the Digimon took swift action to evolve quickly before it was too late. Patamon changed into Angemon and Tailmon changed into Angewomon. And when Takeru and Hikari were only an inch away from getting dipped, their butts were literally saved when their Digimon flew by in the nick of time, and brought them into their arms.

"Angemon!"

"Angewomon!"

The children were very thankful to see them again, stronger and fitter than ever. The Digimon searched for a safe spot to settle them down, as they were most eager to participate in taking out the remaining Acme guards. But it wasn't an easy procedure…the area was swarming with gunfire and soldiers everywhere; it was impossible to find a safe place. So consequently, Angemon and Angewomon decided to take Takeru and Hikari down to the floor from where they stood and protect them until this battle would cease.

"You guards want a piece of us?" Angemon swung his staff and aimed it at his incoming enemies.

"Then, come and get some!" Angewomon slipped out her bow and gathered her arrows.

Acme men fired at them ruthlessly, hoping that their bullets would penetrate the Digimon. Takeru and Hikari ducked, while Angemon and Angewomon sprinted past the bullets easily and took down the guards like bowling pins. And while this was happening…

"HEE! HEE! HEE! HEE! HEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!"

"There's another scary laugh again, only worse than that Chairman guy's!" Takeru said over to Hikari, placing hands over ears with her and flat on the ground. Angewomon picked up a high screeching laugh across in her ear. Looking round her shoulder, she sighted Judge Doom, ready to cut a trapped Eddie Valiant into cocktail sausages.

"Prepare to taste the bitter sweetness of revenge, Mr. Valiant!" Doom cackled in his toony voice as a sweat dropping Eddie gave all his might to set himself free; but every pull, push and shove he made failed. "You may have foiled my plans for a second time, but I don't give a damn! Because I'm the one who's going to win this war between us! After I kill you, all the toons in Hollywood will have NOBODY to solve their cases anymore!"

"Make him pay, Doom! He mustn't stand in our way ever again!" Mr. Chairman said behind, holding a pistol gun against Mr. Takenouchi and Nanahara to prevent them from escaping. "You two can stand right here and watch your friend get sliced into pieces."

"Hey, Doom-ie!" Angewomon called to him far away. Doom turn his head to her direction and quivered when he saw her pulling back a light sparkling arrow in his direction. "Have you ever taken on an anime before? Well, here's a little sample of what we're made of!"

She fired the arrow, but wasn't aiming it for Judge Doom, who cowardly leaped aside. The arrow was meant to hit the chained Eddie…and it did so bulls' eye. And when Mr. Chairman turned around to see what was happening, he received the shock of his life when a large gust of light blinded his face. It jerked him back and made him topple over Nanahara and Mr. Takenouchi.

Eddie felt he could move his arms and legs again. Looking down at himself, he found that the chains and locks on him were gone. They were scattered all over the floor, shattered into tiny pieces. Angewomon's arrow had successfully broke him out, and Eddie laughed once more. He gazed over to Angewomon, looking at him back, and awarded her a thumb up for her excellent aiming. But then, Doom quietly sprung up behind him and raised his weapon high, determined to cut his head off while he was distracted.

"HEEEEEEEEY!!!!!!" Sadly for him though, Angemon dropped down onto his shoulders like a hungry bat and lifted him off the ground by his cloak, bringing him higher and higher into the air. "That's not fair! That's not fair!" Doom squirmed loudly, swinging his buzz saw at Angemon ferociously. "No…No…! NOOOO!!!!!!!!" He screamed madly. "DAMN…! DAMN YOU DIGIMON…! I was so close to getting him…! And you had to ruin it all, you pesky fly!" He was afraid of heights, and looking down from his high view made him most jumpy. "Put me down this instant! Put me down…PUT ME DOWN!"

"Oh, you don't like it up here?" Angemon asked him cheekily, heading towards the tub of DIP below shortly ahead. Doom had his angry eyes fixed on Angemon solely, and had no knowledge of where they were flying to.

'NOOOO!!!!!!!" Doom raged on. "PUT ME DOWN…NOW!!!!!!!!!!!"

"You sure about that?" Angemon came closer to the DIP, slowly plummeting down to it.

"NOOOOOW!!!!!!!"

"All right, then!" Angemon shrugged casually. "Have it your way!"

Doom turned around and saw where was about to land…and he wished he hadn't spoken sooner.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

With a thunderous splash, Doom plunged deep into the green fluid unprepared…leaving only his hat feathering down upon the surface. The DIP bubbled vigorously as Doom was gradually dissolved, until nothing else remained of him.

Elsewhere, Eddie was searching around to find Mr. Takenouchi and Nanahara from where he last saw them. But the first person he clashed into was an infuriated hot-headed Mr. Chairman, grasping with his loaded pistol and pointing it sharply at Eddie's nose. Eddie raised his hands up and stepped backwards with a harmless facial expression.

"I ought to kill you now while I have the chance!" Mr. Chairman sneered devilishly. "Any last words, Detective?"

"Yeah, three words…look behind ya!"

"Oh, hoo, hoo, hoo!" Mr. Chairman advanced towards him. "Nice try there…but a fool like me isn't going to fall for that old toon gag…say your prayers!"

"Ah, sumimasen."

A man behind tapped Mr. Chairman's shoulder.

And when Mr. Chairman answered his caller, he was granted with a knuckle fist in the face by nobody else but Nanahara Yamazaki. The impact was so hard that it made Mr. Chairman go into a fit of dizziness. "Hoo, hoo, hoo…that wasn't very nice! You shouldn't hit a man wearing glasses…ugh…" He went cross eyed and slumped to the ground unconscious.

…

When all had fallen silent in the Acme base, the Japanese police assembled round Eddie, Hikari, Takeru, Angemon, Angewomon, Mr. Takenouchi and Nanahara. All seven of them were circled round a dazed Mr. Chairman, who literally had birds flying around his head.

"The gig is up, Chairman." Eddie said, placing a pair of hand-cuffs on him. "It looks like you've lost."

…

_Author's Note: Hey! Wasn't that exciting…? Don't go yet though, there's still a couple more chapters to go. And since it's Christmas time, expect the next part to be up sometime this week…better yet (or should I say sadly), I might be able to complete both chapters this week. So be on the lookout!_

_And don't forget to review please!_


	11. Case Closed

**_Digital Monsters: Back In Action_**

**_By Charles Xavier_**

…

**Case Closed**

…

_"Today's top story at __8 o'clock__: Takeru Takaishi has been found in Odaiba! At __2 o'clock__ this morning, police were nearly panic-stricken when the famous Lees rushed in and informed them about the anime's whereabouts. Hours later, armed squads explored the underground where he was claimed to be last sighted. Not long during their search, they managed to unravel a hidden lair belonging to the Acme Corporation. A gun war occurred among the Acme workers there when the police forced themselves in. After the long battle, police located Takeru, alongside him were Patamon, Hikari Yagami, Tailmon, Mr. Haruhiko Takenouchi, and Hollywood's Toon Detective Eddie Valiant, all safe and unharmed. However, police were startled when they also discovered Nanahara Yamazaki, son of deceased Hayao Yamazaki, at the scene. Just minutes after this report, thousands of Toei anime and workers had raced across to Odaiba to watch his miraculous return. And recently, authorities have been saying that Nanahara Yamazaki, Hikari Yagami and Detective Valiant have fully denied Takeru in any involvement with his father's murder, and they have demanded that he be released from all his allegations immediately. Over to you, Ryo."_

_"Thank you, Nakama. The Yamazaki family has been highly overjoyed by the fortunate news that Nanahara is alive and well. And good news: Toei Animation is said to be up and running again fully by this afternoon! After beliefs of Toei being shut down permanently, rumor now has it that Acme had been secretly trying to buy the company for reasons that are yet to be known. More about that later in the afternoon…but now, let's go live with Izumi Orimoto in Odaiba, where I hear that Nanahara Yamazaki is about to make his appearance!"_

…

"Ohayo gozaimasu!" Izumi waved at the camera Grottomon was filming. "Izumi Orimoto reporting here live in Odaiba, where the audience here is beginning to increase rapidly on the street! After being told that Nanahara Yamazaki was going to emerge from this sewer drop behind me with police, I hurried from my home as fast I could to witness this heart-breaking event!"

Izumi listened to the crowd when they suddenly grew wild and began cheering. Looking back, she saw that police men climbing out of the sewers one after another. When they were out, two of them drew their arms into the hole to help the remaining people inside the sewers come out.

First came Mr. Haruhiko Takenouchi.

"OTOO-SAN!" Sora burst out from the crowd and ran to her father in teardrops, giving him a warm welcome fatherly hug. "Otoo-san! I thought they were going to kill you!" Mrs. Toshiko Takenouchi appeared also, looking twice as concerned as her daughter, but speechless to say anything; she was heavenly ecstatic to be reunited with her husband again. She ran over to him and embraced him joyously.

Second came Patamon and Tailmon.

All the high spirited Digimon waved at them as if they had become A-Grade stars.

Third came Detective Eddie Valiant, who was cleaning up his hat as he climbed up.

"Hey, Eddie." The Lieutenant came up to him with a pat on the back, crediting him on this news covered arrest. "Where've ya been this whole time, pal? Take out some no-good-doin' anime?"

"Let's just say I solved my first anime case…and met an old enemy of mine on the way."

Fourth came Hikari Yagami, wiping the dirt off her cheeks and smiling bashfully at the cameras surrounding her.

Fifth came Nanahara Yamazaki…who made the crowd turn even more rowdy. Straightening up his glasses, he gave a good look among all the anime and workers surrounding him, and smiled with infinite pleasure bowing left and right at everyone. Izumi, the paparazzi (mainly composed of Gekomon and Otamamon with flash digital cameras) and other news reporters rushed towards him, all with a sack full of questions.

"Mr. Yamazaki!" Izumi was the first one to get to him. "Is it true what you said about Takeru Takaishi being innocent, after evidence has proved correctly that Takeru was in fact the killer of your father?" She placed her microphone over to his mouth.

"Miss…NOTHING was correct in the first place. Takeru Takaishi is not guilty of any crime at all and never has been! The evidence you currently hold is false, and I have the real proof with me to tell it to you all!"

As the reporters aroused more and more questions to Nanahara, the listeners turned their attention to the next person coming out from the sewers.

It was Takeru Takaishi…looking overwhelmed to see everybody so full of energy and spunk one second, and then the next they were dead silent when seeing him. He couldn't guess what was running behind their minds, and that included his family, who he could clearly see beside him: his mother, his father, his grand-father, Yamato and Gabumon. Were they all despising him…or were they all feeling sympathetic towards him…? Takeru pulled on his collar and gave a light wave. "Um…hi, guys."

"That fearless boy and his friends saved us all!" Nanahara pointed to Takeru, Hikari, Patamon and Tailmon. "And I truly owe it to them with my deepest gratitude and thanks…if they hadn't come to my rescue, then Toei Animation would have fallen into a perilous state of disfiguration! It was them who saved my father's company and it was them who stopped Acme from their diabolical schemes. Why, if it weren't for them, anime would have been changed forever from what it now is!"

Just when anybody was thinking of giving some enthusiasm for Takeru and his friends, Mr. Chairman was caught crawling out from the sewers last. Hand-cuffed and appearing very scruffy, the police brought him up to his feet and clasped his arms.

"Damn you! Damn you all for this!" He scowled horridly upon everyone who set eyes on him. "Toei should have belonged to me…ME!!!!! The Chairman of Acme! Not to that silly feathered heron over there!" Anime and people gasped and placed hands over mouths. "All right, I admit it. I killed his father…and I'll kill him too if ever got the opportunity! I hate him, I hate that Detective, I hate that Lieutenant for bringing him here, I hate that those Takneouchis, I hate you Digimon, I hate you, I hate you anime, I hate you Japanese…"

He lastly turned to the two Chosen Children that had helped Eddie Valiant this entire journey. Oh, how much he was loathing them…two flames were burning in his enraged eyes. If he had a metal bat, he'd be whacking Takeru and Hikari until all their limbs were broken. But it seemed that option was not attainable.

"…and I especially hate you two." He said grinding his teeth firmly together and growling like an untamed animal. "I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids!" **(1)**

"Take him away, boys!"

Yamaki blocked his view and ordered the police to drag him away into a black police van. Mr. Chairman was obedient enough to follow the police and left. He turned his head back to find Takeru and Hikari grinning at him with mischief as they bid him a happy farewell, waving cheerfully. People and anime watching went booing and hissing at Mr. Chairman at sheer disgrace, chucking garbage and vegetables at him. The Numemon in particular fired heavy showers of their own filth too. Walking down his path of public humiliation, Mr. Chairman was thrown inside the back of the police van. The van rumbled its engines and drove away with its bleeping siren…until it turned round the corner of the block and disappeared.

"Takeru Takaishi…" Nanahara approached him, holding a written sheet of paper scrolled up in his hand. "…this may be a difficult time to ask you this at awkward occasions like these, but…would it be of any bother to you if I could have your signature?" He unrolled the paper and brought out a golden colored contract. Takeru and Hikari removed the contract from Nanahara's hands and read it carefully:

…

**I, Takeru Takaishi, hereby state my return to Toei Animation and discard all criminal accusations enforced against me. With authorization and agreement of Mr. Nanahara Yamazaki, new head of Toei Animation, I will never again be forced by any man or anime to leave his company's grounds for now and the future.**

…

"We will be most honored to have you back with us, Takeru." Nanahara said. "We are so sorry for what happened in the past…would you like to come back and work with us again?"

Takeru wasn't a hundred percent sure…eyeing down on Patamon and Tailmon, he saw their rapturous nodding at him. But without further hesitation, Takeru made up his mind indubitably when Hikari placed a warm hand over his shoulder and whispered in his ear:

"Go for it, Takeru-kun…I'm right here with you."

Takeru snatched the pen out from Nanahara's offering hand and signed the paper, shouting: "Ah, what the hey? I'm in!"

The crowd burst out cheering again, with high pitched whistles and ear-splitting applauses. Everyone from Toei rejoiced for Takeru Takaishi, and his family bustled through the sea of anime and people to congratulate their youngest member. His father, mother and grand-father squeezed him so dearly that Takeru swore he felt his eyes almost bulging. His brother Yamato wrapped an arm round his neck and rubbed his fist roughly on his hair for fun. Gabumon at the same time jumped up and down with elation.

Eddie and the Lieutenant clapped their hands and watched Takeru shake hands with Nanahara Yamazaki, handing back the signed contract to him. It was then when both the detectives heard girls screaming behind them. Looking round, they saw about ten Japanese school girls whacking their handbags violently on the female-crazed Digimon: Impmon. "BAKA! BAKA! BAKA!" The girls were shouting angrily. It was obvious that Impmon still hadn't been learning his lessons on how to treat women with proper manners and respect. He defended himself from the punishments he took for his sexual harassments.

"Girls! Girls! Please!" Impmon pleaded to them. "I was only kidding with ya! Can't you girls take a dirty joke for once in your lifetimes, huh…? ACK! OW! OUCH! Stop it! You're hurting my head!" Unable to cope, Impmon fled and rushed over to Eddie Valiant for help. "Sir, you gotta save me! These girls are giving me bumps on the head and I can't take the pain no more!"

Eddie bent down and raised a brow at him. "What is it with you and women?"

"I'm just so lonely…" Impmon replied.

As the audience assembled round Nanahara Yamazaki, either asking for autographs or interviews, Takeru's alertness was drawn by Hikari. He found her beckoning a finger to him to follow her behind an empty police truck on the side of the street. It was apparent that she wanted to talk to him privately about something. So taking no suspicions, Takeru went along with her. The two fought their way through the crowd, eventually making it behind the truck. They hid to the other side, where they could be unseen and under the shadow of the vehicle.

"Welcome back, Takeru." Hikari locked her hands round her back and lifted her heels up, glaring up into Takeru's azure eyes romantically. "I'm so happy that you decided to be back with us." She turned a cheek and set her sight away from him for the moment her face started to turn rosy red. "Can I ask you something, Takeru…? Did you really mean all those things you said _back there_?"

"What do you mean?" But Hikari let him figure that one out himself. And indeed, he did. Once Takeru understood what event she was referring to, he bit his lip and hesitated slightly. He placed his shaky hands together and fiddled with his fingers. "Oh…er…um…I…about what I said in Acme when I thought we were done for…I…we…you…" His face blushed with as much redness all over as Hikari's. "…I…I…"

Hikari didn't let him finish the sentence. She spread out her arms lovingly and snuggled against Takeru, taking him by the neck and meeting her warm delicate lips with his. For a flash, Takeru was stunned to see that he was having his first kiss with a girl in his life. (He'd been waiting eleven years for this!). But he accepted it tenderly and brought Hikari's head closer to his, shutting his eyes deeper into blackness sensing his cold lips invaded by Hikari's touch. This was like being in their own movie…where hero and heroine side by side finished their adventure with a passionate kiss at the end.

Oh…if only it were real.

Although this relationship between them was meant to be kept a secret from other eyes, they didn't notice that the truck behind them was moving. And when it departed away from its location, Takeru and Hikari were widely exposed to the crowd. A shocking revelation hit everyone on the head when they faced the couple's activity. They went soundless and jaws were dropped down to the ground. Eddie and the Lieutenant were dumbstruck and paparazzi and news reporters froze like icicles on a winter's day.

Takeru and Hikari opened their eyes to see why all had gone so quiet…and in panic they separated themselves and looked away, still looking red in the face as ever though. And from their uninvited spectators, various reactions arose:

…

"Aye Chihuahua!" Chichos blurted out.

"Oh, my! Oh, my! Oh, my!" Impmon tittered. "It looks like we've got two love birds on board here! HEH! HEH! HEH!"

Taichi and Yamato fainted.

"Hikari…" Tailmon gasped.

"Takeru…" Patamon gasped also.

"Um, are you getting this all on tape, Grottomon?" Izumi asked.

"Look! They're making babies!" Ai and Makoto pointed their fingers out.

"What's goin' on here, you two?" Eddie stepped forward with a stern expression.

…

"Uh…" Takeru dug into his mind to find the right words to explain what precisely Hikari and he were up to. "…er…heh, heh, heh…well, as you can see…Hikari and I…um, like each other…um…very much…eh, heh, heh, heh."

Takeru met Hikari and to his surprise, saw her facing cheerfully back at him.

"Um, Hikari? Why are you looking at me like that in front of all these people?"

"Because I'm in love with you, silly!" Hikari announced in a high voice. "Come over here and give me another kiss!" She grabbed Takeru light-heartedly by the neck and presented him with another kiss on the lips.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Rather than gawking at this unusual moment, everybody jumped up in celebration and applauded once more with high shouts and cries. The paparazzi came over and shot varieties of photos and cameramen came and filmed this unforgettable scene. The whole street became flooded with more and more coming by to join in this triumphant victory for Toei Animation. Their company had been saved, Mr. Yamazaki's son was now the new head, and Takeru was back in business at last where he should have always belonged.

Yep, it was another toon (or anime) case closed for Detective Eddie Valiant…his work here was done.

…

**(1) I'm sure you can guess where this famous catchphrase is from!**

_Author's Note: That's not the end, folks! (Sorry if I tricked you there, but you know how I am in deceiving people). The last chapter of this fic is coming up next!_


	12. Three Months Later

**_Digital Monsters: Back In Action_**

**_By Charles Xavier_**

…

**Three Months Later**

…

_"Now you take care of your little sister Mika, Tomo." Takeru knelt down to his sprightly eight year old son. "Make sure you two don't get yourselves hurt. And remember to have your Digimon with you at all times."_

_"Hai, Otoo-san!"__ The boy nodded his head and went over to play with his friends waiting patiently for him. Four year old Mika ran after him, following the playful children off into the wide spread field of green grass with their Digimon. Takeru watched them disappear off in the clear landscape of the Digital World. "Isn't life swell, dear?" He sighed, taking his beloved wife by his hand._

_"It sure is, Takeru." Hikari Takaishi replied, leaning her tired head onto her husband's shoulder. "I'm glad that the Digital World has become such a safe place to visit now…but do you ever get the feeling our kids might run into new enemies? I mean, we're not sure if there are still any other evil Digimon lurking in this world, you know. Not even Gennai was sure, remember?"_

_"Well, I'm sure of one thing. Whatever Digimon may threaten us, no matter how big or strong, in years to come…we'll be ready for them…we'll be ready to smash them good and teach them a lesson they'll never forget…won't we, guys?"_

_A large party of Takeru's and Hikari's friends and Digimon gathered round._

_"YEAH!"_

_"From generation to generation…humans and Digimon will live in peace and harmony from now, and forever more! And as long as we have the will to live, nothing will break that bond between us…nothing."_

_The End_

…

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A great round of applause filled the entire theatre room. Anime and humans rose from their seats and clapped wildly with exhilaration. Nanahara Yamazaki, sitting with many of the cast and crew of the viewed movie, looked over at Takeru and gave him two thumbs up for his magnificent work on ending 'Digimon Adventure: Zero 02'. Eddie Valiant and the Lieutenant had also attended the premiere; they were impressed by how fabulously concluded Takeru's finale on the second series of Digimon was. It couldn't have certainly been any better.

"That was marvelous, Takeru! Your idea of making a theatrical finish to our series was brilliant! " Hikari came over and shouted as loud as she could in his ear. The clamorous noise in the theatre room had become so deafening that nobody inside could hear themselves think. "Can you hear that…? We love it! WE ALL LOVE IT! HA! HA! HA!"

…

"Nice tux you're wearing, Takeru."

Eddie complimented the anime as the group walked out of the theatre and into the main lobby. Hikari, dressed in a red Chinese cheong-sam, walked alongside Takeru holding his arm. Patamon and Tailmon were as always, following beside them. Everyone in the theatre had had a splendid time: grown-ups were gossiping to each other about the movie, accompanied children were laughing and jumping around excitedly and countless anime went sincerely felicitating Takeru for a job well done.

"Thank you, Mr. Valiant." Takeru laughed and nodded. "I'm so glad to see you again in Japan with us…welcome back!"

Just then, Sora Takenouchi walked out of the theatre with a boyfriend…but it wasn't Yamato who was with her. Hikari and Takeru were quite surprised to see that she was instead with…

"Onii-san?" Hikari called out. "What are you doing with Sora?"

"Oh, after a long time of thinking, Yamato and I decided to break up." Sora answered for him. "Our relationship wasn't turning as well as we had planned…it was fun, but we thought it'd be best to walk our separate paths from now on."

"So, where's Yamato?" Takeru asked her.

She needn't have to answer that question, because out burst Yamato from the theatre doors, escaping desperately from his fan-obsessed girl that was right behind his back: Jun Motomiya. Jun was reaching her arms out for his lover, determined not to let Yamato get away without a simple kiss from her. The mismatched couple ran out of the cinema, dashing into the cold nightly streets of Tokyo outside.

"Maybe I shouldn't have asked."

"So, what are you up these days at Hollywood, Mr. Valiant?" Hikari wondered in curiosity. "Hope the toons there aren't giving you too much of a difficult time, ne?"

"It could be a lot worse, Hikari." Eddie said affably to her. "I've had to solve three cases in one week back in Toon Town…my work ain't getting any easier than this, you know…it's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it."

"Hey, Eddie!" The Lieutenant stepped by, holding his cell phone in his hand. By the serious expressions on his face, it looked like there was something amiss happening at this hour. "Guess what, pal…?"

"What?"

"We've got a new case to handle…right here in Japan…!" The Lieutenant slipped his phone back into his pants pocket. "There's more trouble mixing elsewhere. So come on, there's a police car waiting for us outside!"

He slapped him on the arm and hurried out of the entrance doors.

Oh, dear…just when Eddie thought he could take a break from his investigations abroad, anime were drastically in need of his help over here. It was a cycle that basically wouldn't stop turning. But then again…there was never any rest for the wicked. And that was the problem Eddie hated the most about the enemies he had to deal with. Thus, before taking off from the cinema, Eddie took one last minute to say goodbye to Takeru and Hikari.

"Gambatte, Mr. Valiant!" Hikari said with full support.

"Go shake a leg, Eddie-san!" Takeru winked and gave him a one-sided smile, wishing him the best of luck. "We'll always be looking forward to seeing you back in Toei whenever you visit us!"

Patamon and Tailmon said nothing, but smiled with encouragement for Eddie and presented a firm nod.

Eddie bowed down at the four anime, who bowed in return several times. After that, Eddie waved a hand goodbye as he walked out of the cinema towards the car waiting for him on the streets. The anime waved back and watched him jump into the car and set off to embark on his next adventure. And who knows what challenging encounters the Toon Detective might face next…? There were still many anime yet to meet…and for Eddie, this was only the beginning.

…

**_Fin_**

…

_Author's Note: Yipee, another series of mine completed…but where in Sam Hill have all my lovely reviewers gone?! If you're reading, for Pete's sake, PLEASE review before you leave! I don't write these stories for money, you know. All I ask of you is to write a kind review and let me know what you thought of it…that's all. I may not be writing another Digimon fic for some time…BUT I am planning on writing a sequel to this fanfic._

_Thank you mina-san…and have a most merry Christmas! See you in another fanfic!_


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